tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982Sat, 17 Mar 2018 07:41:03 +0000EconomyUnrestTradeBudgetDemocracyEnergyEnvironmentAusterityHuman RightsWarBilderbergElectionTechnologyG20OccupyTerrorismOdditiesCanadian TrendsNon-partisan trends and commentary for critical thinkers.http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/noreply@blogger.com (Richard)Blogger361125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-5130779751696746730Tue, 04 Apr 2017 07:26:00 +00002017-04-04T01:32:20.281-06:00The time for silence<div class="tr_bq">Trump.</div><br />"Russia".<br /><br />Clinton.<br /><br />"Democracy".<br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">...Just ignore those pesky Wikileaks that prove it was all a lie aided by media collusion to manipulate people, because Russia or something. <a href="https://t.co/UUChBeMkwP">https://t.co/UUChBeMkwP</a></div>— Richard Fantin (@RichardFantin) <a href="https://twitter.com/RichardFantin/status/844361704184168450">March 22, 2017</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> Logical discussion, and the capacity for it to be heard is now gone and with it any real chance the people have had. For the moment those of us with critical thoughts, that haven't been fooled by the grandest circus the world has ever seen, have lost. The U.S. establishment is rewriting history right under your nose, right as you read this. As each moment passes the "evil" becomes "eviler", and the "good" becomes "gooder", for no good reason at all.<br /><br />Of course all of this is just a show put on 24/7 for you dear reader. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bill-clinton-called-donald-trump-ahead-of-republicans-2016-launch/2015/08/05/e2b30bb8-3ae3-11e5-b3ac-8a79bc44e5e2_story.html?utm_term=.6fd2cd3e3273" target="_blank">From Trump "talking politics with Bill" just prior to launching his campaign</a>,<br /><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Former president Bill Clinton had a private telephone conversation in late spring with Donald Trump at the same time that the billionaire investor and reality-television star was nearing a decision to run for the White House, according to associates of both men.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Four Trump allies and one Clinton associate familiar with the exchange said that <b>Clinton encouraged Trump’s efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party and offered his own views of the political landscape</b>.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Clinton’s personal office in New York confirmed that the call occurred in late May, but an aide to Clinton said the 2016 race was never specifically discussed and that it was only a casual chat.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The talk with Clinton — the spouse of the Democratic presidential front-runner and one of his party’s preeminent political strategists — <b>came just weeks before Trump jumped into the GOP race and surged to the front of the crowded Republican field</b>.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>The revelation of the call comes as many Republicans have begun criticizing Trump for his ties to Democrats, including past financial donations to the Clintons and their charitable foundation.</b></span></blockquote>and then of course to&nbsp;<a href="http://observer.com/2016/10/wikileaks-reveals-dnc-elevated-trump-to-help-clinton/" target="_blank">Wikileaks revealed that the Clintons had the DNC (thru the media) elevate Trump</a>, supposedly to "help Clinton".<br /><br />Yet despite the fact that everyone was played, that the entire facade of democracy was proven to be a lie, that the establishment had their dicks out and were basically smacking the entire fucking population's foreheads with their ball sacks, despite all that... "democracy". The circus that was the 2016 election never stopped. I mean for fucks sake, I turn on the TV during the election and what do I see on ABC news?<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Abc news. Live ftom a "pro trump cavern in moscow" to cover election2016. Its.. Just a regular cavern. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/propaganda?src=hash">#propaganda</a> <a href="https://t.co/jjNDGLXVrt">pic.twitter.com/jjNDGLXVrt</a></div>— Richard Fantin (@RichardFantin) <a href="https://twitter.com/RichardFantin/status/796243159143456768">November 9, 2016</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> THIS FUCKING GUY. A reporter, reporting from an empty pub in Russia. Pretending like.. the Russians are going wild. THE GOD DAMN THING IS EMPTY! Gee, do ya think they are preparing to set you up with some bullshit? DING DING DING. You guessed right.<br /><br />And that is how daft the people have become, that a reporter can go to Russia, go to a nearly empty pub, claim it's "pro Trump", and people actually believe it.<br /><br />The U.S. and it's establishment elite have plenty of ties to Russia. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0" target="_blank">Such as this one</a>.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: x-small;">As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, <b>Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation</b>. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, <b>despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.</b></span><b>&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: x-small;">At the time, both Rosatom and the United States government made promises intended to ease concerns about ceding control of the company’s assets to the Russians. Those promises have been repeatedly broken, records show.</span></blockquote><div>Of course at the top, for the power elite, they are all up each others' asses anyway. They all have each others' number. Their bullshit competitions and acting for the peasants are exactly that and nothing more. Why? so you stay out of their way pointing your finger at "the other team" while real business gets done that doesn't really concern you. When the opinion of the establishment sinks so low no one is buying their bullshit anymore they send in the clowns. Trump, the clown. Now suddenly, they have regained control of the message. Now suddenly everything "status quo" is good, and everything "anti-establishment" is Trump. And even better "Russia".</div><div><br /></div><div>That's right the "alt-right" are now stooges of the "alt-left", you know.. the communists? You all do remember that Russia was (and is still implied when western media wants to portray them that way) communist right? That's why they were evil? Not.. "alt-right"? But here-in lies the magic of the major propagandized historic rewrite currently underway, FACTS DON'T MATTER! And with this grand lie comes the groundwork to re-frame anyone, and anything however they want. The middle east? Russia's fault! Blackwater? Totally <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?utm_term=.c15d100ac632" target="_blank">evil Trump</a> and not <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/cheney-russian-meddling-possibly-an-act-of-war/" target="_blank">good ol' Dick Cheney</a> that robotic scoundrel. Everyone at the top is connected, they all have ties to everything, by exposing some and hiding others they can spin any assortment of "teams" they want to accomplish the real strategic goals.</div><div><br /></div><div>I mean it sure is convenient that Russia has "declared war" (by, even if they were behind it - which they probably weren't, exposing the truth behind the massive U.S. propaganda machine behind election manipulation so let's keep in mind it's not actually you know "hacking the election" as is so fondly repeated on your favorite brainwashing channel) when <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/the-united-states-and-nato-are-preparing-for-a-major-war-with-russia/" target="_blank">the U.S. had already put in so much effort just in case such a thing happened!</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Muslim ban? Go ahead and talk about how fucking tolerant and amazing you are and don't bother to take note that the 7 (now 6) countries on "the list" are the same countries the U.S. has been, or has wanting to have been bombing into oblivion for the entire "war on terror". There are now 16 year olds walking around that have grown up in the post-9/11 hyper propagandized "war on terror" threat alert world. People, whose countries have been at war, against an enemy they never see, FOR THEIR ENTIRE LIFE.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's justified <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site" target="_blank">places like this</a>. Remember that? That's not Donald Trump, that's Barack Obama. That's George W. Bush. That's Bill fucking Clinton. The time to fight the encroachment of the police state, of the surveillance state, of the deep state, was then. Not now. OH, you finally just noticed? TV listening in on you? Laptop cam watching you? Phone eavsdropping on you? Cameras face scanning you? Police GPSing you? Hillary Clinton, and Justin Trudeau, with their fake "pro-feminist" act sure as hell are not going to do anything about that.</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com//news/national/csis-failed-to-give-updates-on-data-spying-privacy-commissioner/article34335173/?cmpid=rss1&amp;click=sf_globe" target="_blank">CSIS failed to give updates on data spying: privacy commissioner</a><br /><div><br /></div><div>Not a damn thing.</div><div><br /></div><div>The propaganda effort making this all a reality, and a possibility, is now in full swing. Critical thought, criticism of the system or the banking system, All of this is now being associated to Donald Trump, and by extension to Russia. As I wrote about previously prior to the election, Donald Trump is the clown gifted to those who question the system. Not Ron Paul, who was excluded by the RNC much in the way the DNC excluded Bernie, a real challenger to the system. No, fucking Donald Trump. With all of the old warhawks and propaganda clowns coming out of the woodwork, calling for war, this spells bad news for critical thinkers. The playing field is too hectic for rational discourse to break thru and I fear that we have now entered the territory where saying "the wrong thing" could quite possibly lead to something as ridiculous as treason. I suggest being careful, Orwell's 1984 is here and you never know... <a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/the-cia-is-hacking-samsung-smart-tvs-wikileaks-says-with-weeping-angel-tool-that-acts-as-a-bug" target="_blank">your TV just might be listening</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kc-Xp2DVBjo" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2017/04/the-time-for-silence.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-9184680381809231852Mon, 31 Oct 2016 21:55:00 +00002016-10-31T16:00:52.553-06:00The Qatar - Turkey Pipeline Story<a href="https://twitter.com/i/moments/792935309285613568" target="_blank">Originally posted as a Twitter moment by Hector Morenco</a>. I have converted the Twitter posts into a structured post for better reading, and for later reference. [I have also corrected several typos made in the original tweets]<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lsNaypmShic/WBe2eJ7l0oI/AAAAAAAADxQ/FO6W_DNgHPAWRaNpzDwv27vlbIVwkEKKQCLcB/s1600/Cv_YQ3kVMAAmdmK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lsNaypmShic/WBe2eJ7l0oI/AAAAAAAADxQ/FO6W_DNgHPAWRaNpzDwv27vlbIVwkEKKQCLcB/s400/Cv_YQ3kVMAAmdmK.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />Soon the world will discover HRC &amp; Obama are at the center of the Syrian conflict, profited from the Clinton foundation, &amp; ignored ISIS.<br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>Qatar &amp; Saudis donated to the Clinton foundation while HRC was Sec. State. In exchange for the donations, the CIA was sent to Syria (2011). CIA was behind a staged Arab spring uprising to attempt to topple Assad, because he was blocking the Qatar/Turkey pipeline plan.<br /><div><br /></div>The "FSA" Free Syrian Army was composed of (7) CIA operatives. This group was responsible for the 07/31/11 massacre of 95 people in Hama. The FSA, was orchestrated by the CIA at the request of Obama and HRC at the request of Qatar in exchange for Clinton foundation donations.<br /><div><br /></div>AMBO Stevens was was working on exposing the Free Syrian Army plot info when HRC planned a purposeful attack on his embassy killing him.<br /><div><br /></div>Emails on HRC's private server confirm these tragic events, and Obama &amp; HRC thought they could pardon each other after the election.&nbsp;Little did Obama/HRC realize that an auto-sync feature between Huma &amp; Weiner inadvertently saved the deleted emails on Weiner's machine.<br /><div><br /></div>These bombshells will be confirmed by Wikileaks/Dikileaks soon, but maybe not before the election. The volume of hacked material is massive.&nbsp;This high level heist leaving millions dead is also why HRC wants to assassinate Assange &amp; why Obama sent Kerry to Ecuador. Now its too late.<br /><div><br /></div>If HRC wins then Obama &amp; the Clinton's will pull off the largest heist in the history of the world. That's how important this election is.<br /><div><br /></div>Russia also cut a deal with Assad to allow an alternative Iran pipeline to go through Syria in exchange for favorable OPEC votes &amp; cash.&nbsp;The Democrats were so irritated for being played by the Iranians and Russians that they now want to reignite the cold war against Russia.<br /><div><br /></div>The larger story is how many insiders fighting for insiders there are. All of the MSM is getting a piece of the action from Obama/HRC. Trump in many ways is a sideshow to the brazen criminality &amp; size &amp; scope of the Obama admin &amp; Clinton's corruption enterprise.<br /><div><br /></div>When Trump talks about "Draining the Swamp" he is right, &amp; has risked his life going against the entire world's corrupt power structure.<br /><hr /><br />That was Hector's series of tweets, there was an additional one in which Hector says:&nbsp;"<a href="https://twitter.com/hectormorenco/status/792592879369592832" target="_blank">ISIS formed by accident, and spiraled out of control but also provided cover for the Obama/HRC agenda of laudering bribes for the pipeline.</a>"<br /><br />I just want to provide a few additional thoughts as obviously I have been talking about this for a long time and I disagree on a couple points Hector mentions (I don't believe he is being inaccurate purposefully).<br /><br />First, ISIS definitely did not form by accident. <a href="http://www.cfr.org/syria/al-qaedas-specter-syria/p28782" target="_blank">The U.S. surely knew ISIS would be the result as the Council on Foreign Relations wrote back in 2012 that I often quote</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Al-Qaeda is not sacrificing its "martyrs" in Syria merely to overthrow Assad</b>. Liberation of the Syrian people is a bonus, <b>but the main aim is to create an Islamist state in all or part of the country</b>. Failing that, they hope to at least establish a strategic base for the organization's remnants across the border in Iraq, and create a regional headquarters where mujahideen can enjoy a safe haven. <b>If al-Qaeda continues to play an increasingly important role in the rebellion, then a post-Assad government will be indebted to the tribes and regions allied to the Jabhat. Failing to honor the Jabhat's future requests, assuming Assad falls, could see a continuation of conflict in Syria.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Thus far, Washington seems reluctant to weigh heavily into this issue. In May 2012, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta publicly accepted <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/may/11/al-qaida-syria-leon-panetta-video">al-Qaeda's presence in Syria (Guardian)</a>. And in July, the State Department's counterterrorism chief, Daniel Benjamin, rather incredulously suggested that the United States will simply ask the <a href="http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/rm/2012/195898.htm">FSA to reject al-Qaeda</a>. <b>The unspoken political calculation among policymakers is to get rid of Assad first—weakening Iran's position in the region—and then deal with al-Qaeda later.</b></span></blockquote>Remember how that article opens:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: &quot;georgia&quot; , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The Syrian rebels would be immeasurably weaker today without al-Qaeda in their ranks. By and large, Free Syrian Army (FSA) battalions are tired, divided, chaotic, and ineffective. Feeling abandoned by the West, rebel forces are increasingly demoralized as they square off with the Assad regime's superior weaponry and professional army. <b>Al-Qaeda fighters, however, may help improve morale. The influx of jihadis brings discipline, religious fervor, battle experience from Iraq, funding from Sunni sympathizers in the Gulf, and most importantly, deadly results. In short, the FSA needs al-Qaeda now.</b></span></span></blockquote><a href="https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/former-turkish-counter-terror-chief-exposes-governments-support-for-isis-d12238698f52#.hdzzsrbzz" target="_blank">A new article put out by Nafeez Ahmed goes into the funding and creation of ISIS from the words of the Turkish police chief in charge of protecting ISIS "rebels":</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> A former senior counter-terrorism official in Turkey has blown the whistle on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s deliberate sponsorship of the Islamic State (ISIS) as a geopolitical tool to expand Turkey’s regional influence and sideline his political opponents at home.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Ahmet Sait Yayla was Chief of the Counter-Terrorism and Operations Division of Turkish National Police between 2010 and 2012, before becoming Chief of the Public Order and Crime Prevention Division until 2014. Previously, he had worked in the Counter-Terrorism and Operations Division as a mid-level manager for his entire 20-year police tenure, before becoming Chief of Police in Ankara and Sanliurfa.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">In interviews with <a href="http://medium.com/insurge-intelligence">INSURGE intelligence</a>, <b>Yayla exclusively revealed that he had personally witnessed evidence of high-level Turkish state sponsorship of ISIS during his police career, which eventually led him to resign. He decided to become a whistleblower after Erdogan’s authoritarian crackdown following the failed military coup in July. This is the first time that the former counter-terrorism chief has spoken on the record to reveal what he knows about Turkish government aid to Islamist terror groups.</b></span></blockquote>That's no accident, however I do agree with Hector they spiraled out of control which is why NATO is currently trying to herd them all back into Syria where they are supposed to be. Of course the existence, funding, arming of ISIS is far beyond what's important for Turkey, this is about what's important for NATO. Turkey is in a key position and is required for the Qatar pipeline.<br /><br />So let me just remind you of the chain of events here: The west, failing to get public support for intervention in Syria, creates ISIS instead. ISIS provides the public opinion needed for intervention in Syria and provides a standing army against Assad as the FSA just wasn't up to the task.<br /><br />The other part I disagree on is that Clinton &amp; Obama are at the center of the controversy. While it's true that given current operations they would be at the center, this as Michael C. Ruppert so accurately discussed in the Truth &amp; Lies of 9/11 is truly just a continuation of the Grand Chessboard.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/10/28/the-end-of-the-islamic-state-will-make-the-middle-east-worse/" target="_blank">No wonder the Washington Post is now trying to push the idea that "getting rid of ISIS will make the Middle East worse"</a>, eh?<br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_uU6U7H7Aws" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/10/the-qatar-turkey-pipeline-story.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-5525885896670945761Tue, 11 Oct 2016 22:03:00 +00002016-10-11T18:28:36.422-06:00UPDATE-2: Peeling the onion of propaganda<div class="tr_bq">In the last post in the 'Thing Break Down' series we briefly explored why I think the U.S. election is a complete fraud. It was really all I could stomach writing at the time, but there will be a part 4 which will explore beyond the election into what an empire that breaks down looks like.</div><br />However, while I prepare that content a recent Twitter exchange has inspired me to go a bit deeper into the propaganda being deployed against an unsuspecting western populace that is at the moment obsessed with despising Donald Trump.<br /><br />The fact that someone with as despicable a character as Donald Trump is running in this election should be raising a few eyebrows, and I am convinced it is no coincidence. People hate Donald Trump, absolutely hate him, with a passion. This is a hugely emotional response and I believe that the status-quo is milking that for all it's worth. When you despise someone you are not inclined to listen to evidence that may defend them, you will be inclined to believe anything and everything you hear about them because why not right? Even if it's not true so what? It's not like you'd care.<br /><br />You should care though, that attitude of not critically examining incoming information even if it may oppose your emotional viewpoint provides the groundwork to layer other lies on top of it that may support nefarious agendas.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/vladimir-putin-sidney-blumenthal-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-benghazi-sputnik-508635" target="_blank">latest propaganda to further efforts of war with Russia comes from Newsweek</a> and the last paragraph really caught my eye as it truly reveals the intention of the article. It's not about Donald Trump at all, it's about Russia, U.S. interests and.. Israel?. Let's take a look.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">For now, though, <b>Americans should be outraged</b>. This <b>totalitarian regime</b>, engaged in what are arguably <b>war crimes in Syria to protect its government puppet, is working to upend a democracy to the benefit of an American candidate who uttered positive comments just Sunday about the Kremlin's campaign on behalf of Bashar al-Assad</b>. Trump’s arguments were an incomprehensible explication of the complex Syrian situation, which put him right on the side of the Iranians and Syrians, <b>who are fighting to preserve the government that is the primary conduit of weapons used against Israel</b>.</span></blockquote>&nbsp;Very last paragraph, the author throws everything and the kitchen sink at you. Observe the language being used, the claims being made. "regime", "working to upend democracy". Much as Chris Martenson wrote in his <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-08/do-we-really-want-war-russia" target="_blank">extremely important MUST READ post on the propaganda strategy being deployed here</a>&nbsp;you'd have to forget everything that has happened in the last 5 years to believe this. I'd bet that if much of this propaganda wasn't riding on the hatred of Donald Trump people wouldn't believe it.<br /><br />But fuckin' Donald Trump, Am I right?<br /><br />After the Newsweek article had already gained popular support the Washington Post, and The Intercept have come out with information that counters, or at least demonstrates that Donald Trump wasn't "fed the information from the Kremlin" much as the author would have you believe and that it's likely that Sputnik having realized their mistake and misinterpretation of the email removed it. The only one still running with this farce is Newsweek, but that's enough to trigger the mob (herd?) mentality needed to sew the idea that evil Russia is bein' all aggressive again.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/10/11/the-trump-putin-link-that-wasnt/" target="_blank">The Trump-Putin link that wasn’t</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">But Sputnik either misread or misrepresented the contents of the email. The <a href="https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/2038">original</a> makes clear that Blumenthal was passing along a news article — from Newsweek, by Eichenwald — and not sharing his own thoughts. (In fact, the original email suggests that Blumenthal was passing along the article because it mentions himself, if for no other reason.) <b>This isn't a “falsification” of the email, as Eichenwald puts it, since the email is there in the batch. In the most charitable interpretation, it's a sloppy misreading of it.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>At about 6 p.m. Eastern, Trump was scheduled to take the stage at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. During his speech, he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and said, “This just came out a little while ago.” The “this” appears to have been the alleged confession by Blumenthal that was misreported by Sputnik. The crowd, as Eichenwald notes, began to boo Hillary Clinton.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">How could Trump have gotten that? He could have gotten a secret message from a KGB agent posing as a hot dog vendor in the rally arena, the two surreptitiously meeting after Trump gave the appropriate hand signal. <b>Or maybe one of his allies, who follows Sputnik, saw the article and was like, “Hey, Donald, check this out.”</b></span></blockquote>Read that Newsweek article and observe how the author insults Russia. He calls their hackers stupid, their plans stupid, like they're a bunch of fools bumbling around despite the fact that none of the claims of Russian involvement have been proven and the stupid Russians have been quite effective of halting U.S. ambitions in Syria with nearly surgical precision while the U.S. has struggled to keep their bullshit story consistent. <a href="http://www.cfr.org/syria/al-qaedas-specter-syria/p28782" target="_blank">If you need a history lesson in what has lead to the situation with Russia and Syria I'll let the Council on Foreign Relations explain it to you again</a>&nbsp;(from the time before the "ISIS" narrative took hold):<br /><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Al-Qaeda is not sacrificing its "martyrs" in Syria merely to overthrow Assad.</b> Liberation of the Syrian people is a bonus, but <b>the main aim is to create an Islamist state in all or part of the country</b>. Failing that, they hope to at least establish a strategic base for the organization's remnants across the border in Iraq, and create a regional headquarters where mujahideen can enjoy a safe haven. <b>If al-Qaeda continues to play an increasingly important role in the rebellion, then a post-Assad government will be indebted to the tribes and regions allied to the Jabhat. Failing to honor the Jabhat's future requests, assuming Assad falls, could see a continuation of conflict in Syria.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Thus far, <b>Washington seems reluctant to weigh heavily into this issue</b>. In May 2012, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta publicly accepted <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/may/11/al-qaida-syria-leon-panetta-video">al-Qaeda's presence in Syria (Guardian)</a>. And in July, the State Department's counterterrorism chief, Daniel Benjamin, rather incredulously suggested that the United States will simply ask the <a href="http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/rm/2012/195898.htm">FSA to reject al-Qaeda</a>. <b>The unspoken political calculation among policymakers is to get rid of Assad first—weakening Iran's position in the region—and then deal with al-Qaeda later.</b></span></blockquote><div>Remember that? Trump's statement that "Assad is fighting ISIS" is 100% accurate. Russia is also fighting ISIS. There is only one actor in this theatre of war that isn't fighting ISIS, and that's the U.S. and Putin takes every opportunity to point this out. There is a reason why Russian media relations have been so successful in the last few years and that is because their propaganda has a much stronger grounding in truth while the west's is sloppy and inconsistent and relies on irrational emotional drivers, like the hatred of Trump, to ensure nobody stops and thinks too hard about what it is they are being told.</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2016/10/04/obama-administration-considering-strikes-on-assad-again/" target="_blank">Obama administration considering strikes on Assad, again</a><br /><div><br /><div><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/361672-covert-us-strikes-aleppo/" target="_blank">Covert strikes on Assad back on US table to prevent ‘fall of Aleppo’</a></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/world/middleeast/us-airstrike-syrian-troops-isis-russia.html?_r=0" target="_blank">U.S. Admits Airstrike in Syria, Meant to Hit ISIS, Killed Syrian Troops</a></div><div><br /><div><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-17/syria-accuses-us-airstrike-killing-62-soldiers-serious-and-blatant-aggression" target="_blank">Russia Accuses US Of Defending ISIS, After Pentagon Admits Coalition Jets Killed 62 Syrian Soldiers</a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>But fuckin' Donald Trump, Am I right?</div><div><br /></div><div>You see, the U.S. doesn't have the truth on it's side regarding Russia, or Syria, what it does have however is that disgusting lump Donald Trump who is an expert actor whose best character just happens to be Donald Trump. And there is nothing Donald Trump loves to do better than play up Donald Trump. A person no one likes and says a lot of bullshit with a little bit of truth mixed in but it is these aspects of truth which the U.S. is attempting to associate with Donald Trump. Discredit Trump, and you discredit everything he has ever said, true or not. You see how that works?</div><div><br /></div><div>This is why I said it should be no surprise that the U.S. state department is trying to tie Trump to Russia, because the anti-establishment views he is expressing are also now being tied to Russia. Suddenly now if you speak out against U.S. actions in Syria you must be a "Russian sympathizer", yadda yadda, <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2012/08/cfr-syrian-rebels-would-be-immeasurably.html" target="_blank">even if you were saying the same things 4 years ago that you are today</a> long before Russia's involvement, long before ISIS, long before "chemical weapons", or failing to convince the American people it's in their best interest to overthrow Assad. The U.S. story has changed so much over the last 5 years you'd almost think it's a different war. It's not.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/may/13/1" target="_blank">The same motivations driving the war then, drive it now</a>. The U.S. is still violating international law by operating in Syria. The U.S. is still supporting terrorists to overthrow Assad. Israel is still utilizing the war to expand their territory and cement their position in the Golan Heights - also against international law. None of this has changed.</div><div><br /></div><div>But fuckin' Donald Trump, Am I right?<br /><br /><b>Update-1</b>:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/white-house-russia-hacking-retaliate-229622" target="_blank">White House says U.S. will retaliate against Russia for hacking</a><br /><br /><b>Update-2</b>:<br /><br /><div class="content__labels content__labels--not-immersive " style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: &quot;Guardian Text Egyptian Web&quot;, Georgia, serif; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; margin-left: -15rem; overflow: hidden; padding: 0.375rem 0px; position: relative; width: 13.75rem; z-index: 1;"><div class=""><div class="content__section-label " style="float: none; font-family: &quot;Guardian Egyptian Web&quot;, &quot;Guardian Text Egyptian Web&quot;, Georgia, serif; font-size: 1.375rem; font-weight: 900; line-height: 1.5rem; padding-right: 0px;"><a class="content__section-label__link" data-link-name="article section" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/hillary-clinton" style="background: transparent; color: #005689; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Hillary Clinton</a></div></div></div><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/11/clinton-campaign-wikileaks-hack-russia-donald-trump?CMP=twt_gu" target="_blank">Clinton campaign dubs WikiLeaks 'Russian propaganda' after latest hack</a></div><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SIu4bHWYg0w" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/10/peeling-onion-of-propaganda.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-1671306677887118230Mon, 10 Oct 2016 06:55:00 +00002016-10-10T02:06:45.899-06:00Things Break Down - Part 3We've finally arrived. I now feel I have enough information to provide my opinion on this "election", and frankly it's not good. The political divisiveness has reached hysterical levels and based on what I'm seeing, this entire thing is fraud.<br /><br />I don't mean a fraud in the sense that there are two shitty candidates running in an election, I mean this is a straight up fraud, a Hollywood production, it's entertainment and not even good entertainment at that.<br /><br />During tonight's episode of political Jerry Springer, while the audience waited for Clinton's expected knockout blow to Trump - much as the world awaited Wikileaks knockout blow to Clinton only to be equally disappointed - a large number of lies and propaganda were slipped into the conversation regarding U.S. foreign policy but with the various lewd comments, sexual assault accusations, and other "issues" front and center of this "debate" it would be understandable if you missed that.<br /><br />Recently <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-08/do-we-really-want-war-russia" target="_blank">Chris Martenson put out an extremely important publication regarding clear propagandizing of the western nations, particularly the US, in preparation for a war with Russia</a>. He compares it to the same propaganda techniques used to gain social license for the invasion of Iraq. He points out talking points and phrases you can expect to hear a lot more of many of which were featured in tonight's "debate" the few times real policies actually came up. These phrases and keywords were not injected by the candidates, but by the moderators, asking questions based on the lies regarding Syria, and Russia repeated in every western newspaper about the "humanitarian crisis" in Aleppo. The candidates of course play along, answering these questions with additional lies. The answers have to be lies, as the only truthful response would be to correct the person asking the question regarding the historical context of Syria. A historical context that since Russia's invitation into syria the west has been trying to rewrite.<br /><br />They've done a good job and repeat "Russian aggression" so often that people I know, who should know better, believe it. To go hand in hand with this the U.S. state department has without evidence of course tied "Russia" to the DNC hacks, and it should be no surprise that Russia is being tied to Trump too.<br /><br />Lets stand back and take a look at what you're really voting for. On the one side you have Hillary Clinton, the front(wo)man for the status-quo. You're not really just voting for Clinton though are you? Behind her stand all of the other shitty presidents and members of the status-quo and architects of the financial and military quagmire the west has been drawn in to (when did the opinion of George W. Bush start to mean something to 'progressives'?). She doesn't represent the Democrats, she represents a continuation of exactly everything that has already been done.<br /><br />On the other hand you have Donald Trump, a complete buffoon that says a lot of lewd remarks, inbetween other sensible statements like regarding the low-interest ponzi-conomy and the Federal Reserve. Statements that echo the likes of Ron Paul or Jill Stein. The anti-establishment viewpoint. There are a lot of people these days with anti-establishment viewpoints and isn't it interesting that they've been provided such a useless mascot to represent them? A mascot that just happens to be getting tied to Russia at the same time the U.S. is trying to start a war with Russia? And where does this leave your dear voter? Between Trump and a hard place.<br /><br />Is it even a real election if the entire status quo everyone ever voted for ever is all sitting under the same umbrella, thus providing a default mandate to continue doing exactly what they've been doing while giving you <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0MMrctJE-4" target="_blank">this guy</a> for the opposition and barring the third party candidates from the debates? Isn't it interesting how the media has people convinced Jill Stein or Gary Johnson is too crazy, or too stupid to debate against the likes of Trump, and Clinton? Surely with Trump running Stein couldn't possibly be "too crazy" to debate, could she? And yet much of the mainstream talk simply dismisses her based on some misquoted hyperbole about vaccines. How convenient.<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d0MMrctJE-4" width="560"></iframe></div><br />Isn't it interesting how all of the GOP powerbrokers now backing Clinton were "helpless" to stop his rise? And why was that, because Trump has money? They have more. But what's more interesting is that they all know each other. Trump talks frequently about golfing with Clinton, and yet somehow some of these obviously easy to obtain recordings which would have easily vetted him out just couldn't be found? All of these guys who have business dealings just weren't around? All of these people now coming out against his character just weren't around? The big money resources of the GOP just couldn't find anything huh? You have to be in a complete state of cognitive dissonance to believe the GOP story about the rise of Trump, they had unlimited resources to stop him they weren't helpless and yet, they didn't. One can only conclude they never wanted to stop his rise in the first place.<br /><br />I see a lot of talk of the U.S. becoming a fascist state if you vote for this candidate, or that candidate. The hyperbole is equal on both sides. I have a different theory: the U.S. is already a fascist state and this is exactly the type of election such a fascist state would run. A race that isn't really a race at all, a race where at the end of the day the population is left with no alternative but to vote for the fascist policies that have been active for nearly 2 decades now, and of course war with Russia.<br /><br />The emotional exchanges those observing this election are being drawn into are intended, as so long as you are emotional you are not thinking critically. When you're not thinking critically you are much easier to influence, your defenses are down and you can have your opinion formed by carefully planted suggestion.<br /><br />I think I've made my point, if you have any specific questions comment below.<br /><br />I called this post 'things break down', and what you are observing this "presidentual race" is what happens when an empire starts to break down. Fascism is already here. War is already here. If you're concerned about these things and think that voting one way or the other will make a difference then you haven't been paying attention to the events unfolding while you've been distracted by the presidential reality show.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rLvzvlpMyy4/V_tMCqlN90I/AAAAAAAADwM/mUbLMM3g1k8GCA0HT4_8KklXzDsx7VhhACLcB/s1600/donald-hillary-800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rLvzvlpMyy4/V_tMCqlN90I/AAAAAAAADwM/mUbLMM3g1k8GCA0HT4_8KklXzDsx7VhhACLcB/s320/donald-hillary-800.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br />When you don't control your government...<br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AiS4wnhBdKs" width="560"></iframe></div><br />http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/10/things-break-down-part-3.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-283895477900181334Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:35:00 +00002016-10-06T13:35:51.605-06:00USA's Day of Reckoning<span style="font-size: large;">USA's Day Of Reckoning - Hidden Secrets Of Money &nbsp;Episode 7 - Mike Maloney </span><br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P4_1pwsm5LY" width="560"></iframe></div><br /><a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2013/11/the-simplest-explanation-of-monetary.html" target="_blank">Episodes 1 - 6</a>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/10/usas-day-of-reckoning.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-6406075136444401420Thu, 04 Aug 2016 02:50:00 +00002016-08-03T23:18:37.887-06:00Things break down - Part 2As I mentioned in my last post, I came across a link during my research for what was going to be a post solely on the U.S. election, I didn't link it then however. The significance of this particular post needs to sit within the context of other, perhaps lesser, but similar events to start to paint the picture.<br /><br />I titled this series 'Thing break down", as that is really what's happening here. This presidential election (and the scenes outside) combined with the amount of other divisive issues, the Brexit, the civil strife, the wars... the sheer volume of it. The photos of riot police and protesters used to be somewhat rare just 5-6 years ago. It was a big event. Now it's everyday. In more places.<br /><br />Much of the world has already reached the violent stage of this collapse. We're hearing a lot about Venezuela in the news and their collapse - for instance, but little as to the major contributor of what set it off instead most articles focus on the government's response to a situation they are increasingly powerless to control which is that they are quite near to the point where they will no longer be able to generate electricity due to a drought and <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-electricity-crisis-in-venezuela-a-cautionary-tale" target="_blank">haven't built the infrastructure to prepare for this problem</a>. Their currency is hyper-inflating, and their society is falling apart. The corruption in the government means nothing ever gets done and their focus <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/03/venezuela-police-raids-human-rights-abuses-crackdown-gang" target="_blank">is on maintaining control</a>.<br /><br />Much as ours will be.<br /><br />You'll notice no matter how much currency they print, they can't buy wealth. What their electricity shortage hasn't destroyed economically has been by the oil price dilemma.<br /><br />Venezuela of course is an extreme example. They are much, much further on the curve of decline and much less robust than the advanced western world. However, the same principals apply to us - just as they can't print their wealth into existence neither can we. The oil price is only a problem because the overall cost to produce this oil is much greater than it used to be due to peak conventional oil which means the margins are much smaller or as in the case of a much of our extreme energy production: negative.<br /><br />This means we have less surplus energy everyday to work with, to apply to sciences, to technology, to improvement, to maintenance. Venezuela squandered it's returns for it's surplus energy. It should have invested in new infrastructure. You don't just dream that shit up overnight it takes time to build it good and build it right.<br /><br />It's difficult to build good infrastructure when you are in a state of collapse. You need to invest in it before that collapse, when you actually have the wealth. This is something that the western world also didn't do, but our mass of infrastructure is vast, and old and the amount of time it would take to repair it all is frankly, staggering. If we had the money to do it that is.<br /><br />The scope of the world we live is really astounding when you think about it, isn't it? What we've built in the last 100 years is just mind boggling. That we haven't just built the physical structures, but computing devices which now model in incredible fidelity smaller versions of that same massive scope of a world is mind boggling. That I can play Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, on my phone (which I like to call my "Star Trek pad" - you know, cause they called them pads?) is mind boggling. Unfortunately there are also downsides to this scope and scale... maintenance, which is also mind-boggling in it's scope and scale.<br /><br />Let's start with a small example and work our way up to the article I was mentioning earlier and in the last post.<br /><br /><a href="http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/whitemud-drive-flooding-likely-too-expensive-to-fix-city-officials-say" target="_blank">Whitemud Drive flooding likely too expensive to fix, city officials say</a><br /><div><br /></div><div>So the basic premise here is that with the anticipated increase in extreme weather events and the increase in flooding not to mention the potential damage and costs that flooding may do the City of Edmonton is instead opting to look to the cheapest solution which does the bare minimum of the objectives which is to reroute traffic and ensure no one gets stuck under there again. A noble cause, but also shortsighted with it's minimalist objectives as another should be to maintain infrastructure to the highest standard at the lowest cost.</div><div><br /></div><div>Things always seem to be "too expensive" and yet we exist within a monetary paradigm that *hopes* for inflation - that is, for them to get even more expensive and at the same time we complain about how expensive things are. It isn't going to get significantly cheaper, so the modifications should probably be done now and since we squandered all of our real wealth we will probably have to borrow from the future to do it and hope the wealth we're borrowing actually manages to exist when the bills come due.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is of course but one overpass in a sea of overpasses. And this is also an example of a decision, deliberately made because of cost. Because of budgets. Whenever political talk of budgets arises two unproductive commentator camps emerge, both militant in their belief. One cares only for 'balanced budgets', the other cares only for 'adequate spending', and neither try to really... understand, each others position. For they are opposites. Aren't they? We act as though they are.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rarely do I see anyone ask: what if both positions are true, at the same time? I don't see many people asking that question I believe because the answer isn't a very nice answer. It has no light at the end of the tunnel for those that feel they are entitled to infinite growth like the faith in one of those ideologies or the other does. This revelation instead presents a stark mindfuck, a reminder, that what we are doing and how we are living and the resources we are consuming at the rates we are consuming them at, is not sustainable.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next up we have an interesting little piece on the state of elevators in Canada, lets take a gander.</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/business/elevator-broken-1.3689394" target="_blank">Broken elevators reaching 'crisis' proportions across Canada</a><br /><div><br /></div><div>This link not only provides a great example of the scale that I am talking about, it also provides a great example of collusion and corruption, along with general greed for profits, hampering what should be considered to be critical infrastructure to all types of operations across Canada. This situation should hardly be considered to be unique to Canada though I'm sure if similar investigations were conducted in other "advanced" western nations you'd see the same thing. The scale and money required today to fix these problems is simply staggering, but we're not fixing them today and tomorrow doesn't look good either.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can see it everyday in the discussions about infrastructure and it's pretty hard for anyone to deny the truth that we just can't keep up when every day new cuts are made, the economic situation worsens, and the wear and tear of ill-maintained infrastructure becomes more apparent. From the <a href="http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/08/02/news/saskatchewan-government-unlikely-clean-all-husky-oil-spill" target="_blank">oil spill in Saskatchewan and our aging pipeline infrastructure</a>, to&nbsp;<a href="http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/features/11160/" target="_blank">New York's fragile subway</a> to a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/world/india-bridge-collapse-1.3705261" target="_blank">collapsing bridge in India</a> to Fukushima to nuclear plants in the U.S. where according to the EIA "<a href="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=19091" target="_blank">Almost all U.S. nuclear plants require life extension past 60 years to operate beyond 2050</a>". Where exactly do people think the "money" to do all this is going to come from? And yes while the maintenance of this infrastructure temporarily creates jobs it doesn't create wealth. We already have a bridge, for instance, and after we deploy the materials, time, and effort to maintain that bridge we still only have one bridge. This is what the death of growth and the reality of that looks like. Until we accept that rebuilding the same things over and over again isn't growth &nbsp;- and is in fact an expense as the banks like to claim it is - we've got some serious problems on the horizon.</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/fortmcmurray-conferenceboard-wildfire-1.3584962" target="_blank">Fort McMurray fire won't devastate economy, says new report</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif; line-height: 18.9001px;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"Overall, we expect the rebuilding efforts to add roughly $1.3 billion in real GDP to Alberta's economy in 2017 — or about 0.4 percentage points to economic growth. Construction will likely remain elevated in 2018, and possibly into 2019 as well until rebuilding is completed," states the report.</span></span></blockquote>&nbsp;Oh yea, "hardly noticeable". Rebuilding what they once had will even add GDP! Today's growth. You can almost picture the bankers licking their lips at the destruction, some much needed stimulus. And if your entire purpose in life is to employ people in jobs rebuilding the same old 1960s and 1970s tech over and over again while racking in tons of printed currency then all is well. But if your view of a healthy economy is improvement in standard of life and well being, surpluses of energy and time to do what you love, you're shit out of luck.<br /><br />But here's the big one.<br /><br /><a href="http://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/inside-the-aging-lock-that-is-one-breakdown-away-from-crippling-north-americas-economy" target="_blank">Inside the aging lock that is one breakdown away from crippling North America’s economy</a><br /><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>In other words, the Poe is the only link from Lake Superior to the lower Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean beyond, and it’s living on borrowed time. In two years, the Poe turns 50, and, with Congress reluctant to fund a new lock, concerns are growing about its reliability. The lock broke earlier this week, blowing an O ring on a hydraulic line that feeds the gate activator. Luckily, mechanics fixed it in 45 minutes.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> It was not a moment too soon. The North American economy needs this lock. <b>The iron ore that passes through here each year becomes more than US$500 billion worth of cars, trucks, fridges, bridges and other things made of steel. A bigger failure would spell catastrophe and it’s an increasing probability.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> This spring, the Detroit Free Press obtained a classified report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, <b>which calls the Poe, “the Achilles’ heel” of the North American industrial economy.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b> “A six-month shutdown of the Poe Lock … would plunge the nation into recession, closing factories and mines, halting auto and appliance production in the U.S. for most of a year and result in the loss of some 11-million jobs,” the report warns.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> Alarm bells are already ringing for U.S. ship owners.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“Last year, we had the MacArthur Lock down for two weeks and the Poe Lock went down for an hour,” says Jim Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers Association, whose 17 members own 56 ships. <b>“For the first time in my memory, you had the Army Corps of Engineers unable to move a ship. The scenario of a six-month outage isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem.”&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b> Canadian steel mills also depend on the lock. More vitally for Canada, eight million metric tonnes of prairie grain travelled by train last year to Thunder Bay, and then loaded onto ships headed to the St. Lawrence Seaway. Much of the grain then moved across the Atlantic to help feed Africa and Europe.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>“What’s concerning me is that the Mac lock is the same vintage as the Poe and has had a noticeable failure,” says Kirk Jones,</b> president of the Canadian Shipowners’ Association and a vice-president at Montreal-based Canada Steamship Lines. (The Mac actually opened in 1943 and the Poe in 1968). “We’re nervous that the same thing could shut down the Poe and shut down shipping in its entirety.”</span></blockquote>We're going to leave it here, I want that to sink in. See you in part 3 where we will start to get into the U.S. clownshow as Tom Morello is so elegantly putting it..<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gvhFQg_w950" width="420"></iframe></div>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/08/things-break-down-part-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-5380120195217654696Sat, 30 Jul 2016 08:57:00 +00002016-07-30T02:59:59.072-06:00Things break down - Part 1My posts this year have been becoming increasingly unfocused, and the reason for this is that the sheer number of events that are occurring around the world - all connected - is also increasing. It comes down to time as each post as is takes me hours to compile, write, and connect the dots and even still I leave information out as to include it would mean more hours on top of those. I do have a life outside of this blog and the lengthy posts are taking a toll. Information quality has gone down, and the length of my posts I find tends to scare off readers. Historically it's been my shorter posts that do well while my longer posts don't, for understandable reasons.<br /><br />I was originally going to write a post tonight about the U.S. election, even though I promised myself I wouldn't write one much earlier in the year. I promised myself I wouldn't write one because frankly my forecasts for this U.S. election are so disturbing that I'd honestly hoped they weren't true. I didn't want to put it out there as just it's very existence may have created the situation I feared may happen which considering the whole point of writing my forecasts is to avoid these events, it seemed counter-productive. Sadly many of my internal forecasts seem to be coming true anyway and so the harm factor in writing these forecasts has greatly diminished. We will get to what these forecasts are.<br /><br />In my research phase for this post I came across an interesting, and very indirectly related article, which has caused me to rethink my approach. In my day job as a programmer we refer to this as "scope creep", and as I mentioned earlier is the reason largely my posts have become so unfocused. The number of links I post to Twitter has increased ten-fold, and what's worse the links I post are simply a fraction of the links I am finding to be of importance to the trends at play. As the number of events have increased I've had to become increasingly selective of the criteria that signifies a significant event (the links I tweet all have some significance to the grand story I've been trying to tell, they often indicate turning points or confirm trends I've written about in the past) meaning that links I would have posted in the past no longer meet the minimum criterion I use to determine what is a significant event.<br /><br />That all said, I feel that I've been sitting on a lot of important information that I really wish to share with my readers, I just haven't been able to figure out how. Until tonight.<br /><br />We've covered a lot of ground over the years. From the root causes of much of the world issues: peak oil and infinite growth, to forecasts of the probable symptoms of these issues (<a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/albertas-new-permanent-reality.html" target="_blank">Alberta's increasingly dire financial situation being a prime example</a>), to descriptions of the steps the various states will take to mitigate these issues most of which involve an increasingly Orwellian surveillance and police state, to the current trend of the great deflation and the <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/cibc-negative-yield-bonds-1.3685259" target="_blank">inevitable arrival of negative interest rates</a> in "strong stable" Canada. Our next stop due to all of the above is going to be a period of time where things break down (and where there's no money to fix them).<br /><br />This phase will likely be the phase in which the infinite growth monetary paradigm is exposed as ineffective, and counter-productive. Over the next few years I anticipate that the question of "what is solvency?" will take shape in various forms as the status-quo appears increasingly incompetent in face of mounting critical failures, and where "free market" (in reality rigged market) economics fails to transition us to anything other than procrastination.<br /><br />However, these topics are all to be covered in later parts of this series, as the very first thing that's breaking down is the ability to simultaneously comprehend all of the problems we are facing, and design insulation to them that is not showered in cognitive dissonance. The more complex the situation becomes the harder it's going to be to see the big picture, and the harder it becomes to see the big picture the more likely it is that people are going to expend energy on supposed "solutions" that are doomed from the start due to simple oversight.<br /><br />My realization tonight was that my inability to focus my posts coherently is in itself a symptom of things breaking down as complexity ramps up. So for this series each post is going to be small, and focused on a single specific topic. I hope it turns out better, and that you all enjoy it. Part 2 coming soon.http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/07/things-break-down-part-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-5404553408961300550Fri, 10 Jun 2016 01:57:00 +00002016-06-09T19:57:26.089-06:00Canada's housing hotbed of denialWriting about Canada's housing situation is always a frustrating experience for me. For years many of us, sceptical of Canada's debt-fuelled "recovery", have said Canada's housing situation is absolutely insane. Cheap loans have been allowing us to limp along on the back of what we're likely to discover is a bunch of fake wealth we conjured up out of thin air.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-09/bank-canada-warns-higher-possilbity-housing-downturn-sees-vancouver-toronto-prices-u" target="_blank">Bank Of Canada Warns Of "Higher Possilbity" Of Housing Downturn, Sees Vancouver, Toronto Prices Unsustainable</a><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/business/crea-home-prices-foreign-buyer-economy-1.3580780" target="_blank">Governments terrified of popping foreign-buyer housing bubble: Don Pittis</a><div><br /></div><div>It's ironic isn't it, that the bank of Canada is only now warning that Toronto and Vancouver are "unsustainable" since other overheated parts of Canada - like Calgary - are already "un-sustaining"? Even this admittance by the Bank of Canada is a better sounding understatement than the true situation. The Bank of Canada, along with the federal government, has manufactured this situation and for years they have been using this artificial asset bubble to "prove" the recovery is real.</div><div><br /></div><div>A few years ago I wrote some commentary titled '<a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2014/01/the-magic-of-minimum-wage-and-inflation.html" target="_blank">The magic of minimum wage and inflation hocus pocus</a>'. It is without a doubt one of the most important things I've written about the state of our economy and the belief in economic fixes that attempt to fix the unsustainable within that same unsustainable box. A significant portion of the piece is spent on housing, in which I show that the author of the work I was commenting on actually believed that devaluing your purchasing power to create the illusion of rising equity was a "good thing" because it supposedly fought off "evil deflation". How so-called "economists" are blind to the unsustainable and inevitably deflationary nature of that arrangement I'll never know, yet here we are. The rabbit is out of the hat now.</div><div><br /></div><div>Back in September of last year I caught a little-noticed article.</div><div><br /></div><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/the-law-page/canadian-banks-helping-clients-bend-rules-to-move-money-out-of-china/article26246404/" target="_blank">Canadian banks helping clients bend rules to move money out of China</a><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Some Canadian banks allow wealthy Asian investors to skirt Chinese law by helping them bring in large amounts of money that is often used to buy real estate in Vancouver.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Financial institutions in the area have flagged more than 8,200 suspicious transactions since January, 2012, the year China began cracking down on citizens they suspect of corruption.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Ninety-six per cent of those transactions were also facilitated by the banks, however, even though the vast majority of that business involved suspected money laundering, according to FinTRAC, the federal agency responsible for tracking money laundering.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">These findings, obtained by The Globe and Mail through an Access To Information Request, come as a debate rages over the source of foreign investment and Vancouver’s soaring luxury housing markets. A recent study by <b>Macdonald Realty said 70 per cent of clients who paid more than $3-million for Vancouver houses last year were from China.</b></span></blockquote>This housing situation didn't happen by accident, the government and the banks have been relying on foreign currency to prevent it from collapsing in the first place. It's been obvious as day with millennials moving home and wages stagnating that there was a disconnect between reality and the housing market. It was clear with Canadian household debt hitting ever increasing highs and constant low interest rates to "spur borrowing" that this would be the result. All those who have been saying "don't worry" for the last 3 years as they drank the economic koolaid should be ashamed of themselves; if they call themselves an economist? resign. This situation couldn't have been more obvious for those not mesmerised by the belief in infinite growth or easily fooled by non-sensical "there's no bubble" propaganda.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-08/whole-shebang-broke-only-thing-thats-growing-debt" target="_blank">"The Whole Shebang Is Broke" - The Only Thing That's Growing Is Debt</a>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/06/canadas-housing-hotbed-of-denial.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-6173484487753146703Tue, 07 Jun 2016 15:00:00 +00002016-06-07T09:11:49.967-06:00"Cancellation fees and jobs", "empty words and double standards"<blockquote class="tr_bq"><i><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Central to the international human rights system is the essential principle of universality. States are committed to fulfill their obligations to promote universal respect for and the observance and protection of all human rights for all. The international system does not declare that the rights of individuals and peoples matter more or less because of where they live, or that there should be more or less international level concern about human rights protection in certain countries over others. From the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 to the advent of the Universal Periodic Review 60 years later, in 2008, universality has been fundamental to international human rights protection. An important dimension to the principle of universality is that <b>Canada’s implementation of human rights should be measured against its capacity and history: whether it is progressing, regressing or stagnant, and in light of what should be reasonably expected of a country with such an abundance of resources and wealth.</b></span></i></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">From "<a href="http://www.amnesty.ca/get-involved/lead-in-your-community/empty-words-and-double-standards-canadas-failure-to-respect-and-" target="_blank">Empty Words and Double Standards: Canada's Failure to Respect and Uphold International Human Rights</a>" / Amnesty International</span></blockquote>&nbsp;I've been observing an exchange on Progressive Bloggers that I can't help but interject on. The subject matter covered in the last volley is of particular interest to me as I don't particularly feel that either has provided a true analysis. <a href="http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca/2016/06/the-miserable-mound-of-bigotry-comes.html" target="_blank">Montreal Simon's is written in partisanship</a>, and <a href="http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/2016/06/now-we-know-indeed.html" target="_blank">Mound of Sound's in haste - while also failing to correctly identify the issue</a>.<br /><br />Rather than quote and comment on those posts though I'm instead going to comment on the source material they are both commenting on.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/06/04/canada-would-face-multi-billion-dollar-penalty-if-it-cancelled-armoured-vehicle-sale-to-saudis.html" target="_blank">Canada would face multi-billion dollar penalty if it cancelled armoured vehicle sale to Saudis</a><br /><div><br /></div><div>The focus here will be on the issues with Simon's post as Mound's entire take was based on a statement I'm assuming he either misread, or misunderstood, and which is actually attributed to John Baird - Montreal Simon explains this aspect <a href="http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca/2016/06/the-miserable-mound-of-bigotry-comes.html" target="_blank">within his own response</a> so I won't explore that further.</div><div><br /></div><div>The reason I call his post written in partisanship is that he deliberately omits certain quotes and re-frames the Liberals actual position as "getting screwed".</div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">When Harper announced the $14.8-billion sale in 2014, he and land systems officials touted the 3,000 jobs to be created — mostly in London, Ont. — and the importance of Canada working with Saudi Arabia, a key regional security ally in the Middle East.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Liberals did not oppose the sale during last year’s federal election, with a campaigning Trudeau at one point calling it a commercial contract for a bunch of “jeeps.”&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Once in power, foreign affairs minister Dion signed off on export permits in April to approve the shipment of the LAVs <b>based on an <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/04/12/armoured-vehicles-approved-for-export-to-saudi-arabia-documents-show.html">assessment</a> the Saudis would not use them against its civilian population but would use them to defend Canada’s common security interests with the desert kingdom</b>.</span></blockquote>Here is another one missing from Simon's post:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">On Thursday in the Commons the NDP demanded to know why <b>the government would not create a committee to oversee arms exports to guard against human rights abuses</b>.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Pam Goldsmith-Jones, Dion’s parliamentary secretary, said “the government takes every opportunity to raise critical issues with senior Saudi officials with respect to humanitarian issues, consular issues, and human rights, as the minister did in his visit to the region last week.”&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Asked later how the government intends to monitor whether the LAVs would end up being used by Yemeni military forces against civilians, she said, “<b>We’re watching that situation very closely. Of course, as you know, with regard to our permit process, monitoring the human rights situation is of utmost importance, so that’s all I can tell you at this time.</b>”</span></blockquote>My personal favourite:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“<b>In fairness to the Liberals</b>,” Baird said, “<b>this was successfully negotiated by General Dynamics Land Systems under the previous Conservative government and you shouldn’t blame the Liberal government for that. Contracts should be sacrosanct, and the new government is honouring that and it’s the right thing to do.</b>”&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Fast’s and Baird’s views are in sharp contrast to the position taken by the Conservatives’ current foreign affairs critic, <b>Tony Clement, who said information now available about Saudi Arabia’s actions in Yemen wasn’t available at the time the deal was struck. He said the deal should be shelved.</b></span></blockquote>And there it is, the false left/right paradigm and continuity of government wrapped up in a simple two paragraphs. As I wrote yesterday:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>It's how the system manipulates the public: a politician comes in, makes many unpopular changes then a popular one comes in and doesn't change much at all and simply utilizes the changes passed by the previous government. The anger about those changes leaves with the previous political party but the changes themselves? Those remain.</i></blockquote>And there is Baird telling you to do exactly that, while the "opposition" takes on their role pretending to give a shit as with nearly every other major issue we never see change on.<br /><br />Ironically <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-saudi-un-idUSKCN0YS24F" target="_blank">just today the Saudi-led coalition has been removed from the blacklist</a>, "pending review":<br /><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Following a complaint by Saudi Arabia, however, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed to a joint review by the world body and the coalition of the cases cited in the annual report of states and armed groups that violate children's rights in war.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"Pending the conclusions of the joint review, the secretary-general removes the listing of the coalition in the report's annex," Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>But Saudi Arabia's U.N. ambassador, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, said the removal of the coalition from the blacklist was "irreversible and unconditional."&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>"We were wrongly placed on the list," he told reporters. "We know that this removal is final."&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Mouallimi, who described the removal as a vindication, earlier on Monday said the figures in the U.N. report were "wildly exaggerated" and that "the most up-to-date equipment in precision targeting" is used.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Saudi Arabia had not been consulted prior to the publication of this year's report, Mouallimi added.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri said in a statement sent to Reuters late on Sunday that the <b>U.N. had not based enough of its report on information supplied by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign in Yemen in March last year with the aim of preventing Iran-allied Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen's ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking power.</span></blockquote><div>Yes, you read that right, the U.N.&nbsp;"had not based enough of its report on information supplied by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government". And we're supposed to believe that Canada "is watching the situation very closely"? That we take "every opportunity to raise critical issues with senior Saudi officials with respect to humanitarian issues, consular issues, and human rights"? If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.</div><div><br /></div><div>Deals always have cancellation fees. Considering Canada spent 1 billion dollars beating it's own citizens, I think we can probably afford a "multi-billion" cancellation fee, don't you? To ensure we are not involved in the oppression? This is of course if that fee can actually be enforced. I'm sure if Canada is actually "watching things closely" it wouldn't be hard to fight the legal ramifications at the WTO or whatever secret corporate court would handle it. If we actually had any interest in doing so, anyway. We don't.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">So who's he to pretend he's a great defender of human rights? Why would he twist my words? When he's the one who is siding with the Saudis by suggesting that <b>we should pay them billions so they can buy armoured cars from another country</b>.<br /> <br /><b>So we could lose $20 billion dollars, and throw thousands of Canadian workers into the street, for nothing.</b></span></blockquote>First of all, the deal is only worth $14.3 billion. The cancellation fee is cited at "multi-billion" - probably less than the value of the deal. Second, the Saudi's don't need our billions - in fact they are trying to dump their reserves in preparation for a new monetary system that is not based on the USD. This deal is just one of many that the Saudi's, the Russians, and the Chinese are carrying out sending their stored U.S. debt back to the west where it came from and getting real material and assets in return. Third, it's not "for nothing" - if not for at the very least Canada and Canadians having a legitimately clean conscious about our involvement.<br /><br /></div><div>As I've been writing about over the past year, the Saudi's along with the Russians, and the Chinese are all moving away from trade with the U.S. dollar. <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2012/05/canada-may-be-secretly-preparing-to.html" target="_blank">Canada is working to establish itself in this new alliance</a>. "Screwing the Liberals?", no, this about serious things - not the political circus. Governments everywhere love to talk about human rights, meanwhile the neoliberal agenda works to eradicate them and turn everyone into a debt slave in a new world of feudalism as the industrial age and the control system of a taste of luxury disintegrate due to limits to growth taking hold. We're up against very powerful forces here and they don't play the same political bullshit we do.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Amnesty report on Canada is named perfectly "empty words and double standards". The Canadian public gets all in a huffypuff that a journalist was "berated" by a Chinese ambassador here on a business trip representing the very same alliance our Saudi deal is connected to and yet when our government that claims to "uphold the value of human rights" has a real chance and window to actually make a difference all it takes is the mention of some debt based fiat currency and some jobs to change our tune, even though "money and power" is where most human rights violations stem from anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Empty words and double standards", indeed.<br /><br /><br /></div><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Uek9vCFfNB0" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/06/cancellation-fees-and-jobs-empty-words.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-8233124597934185830Fri, 03 Jun 2016 19:02:00 +00002016-06-03T13:02:42.758-06:00Struggles of a non-partisan<div class="tr_bq">The posts I write in the next few years aren't going to be very popular. I'm ok with that. I didn't create this blog to be popular in fact quite the opposite: I made it to make you think and self-contemplate. I often compare politics to a team sport where the team you play for is more important than the issues being dealt with. The internet is a sea of meaningless terminology that passes for political discourse.</div><br />"Oh those libtards, they something something blanket statement"<br /><br />"Oh those dippers, they something something blanket statement"<br /><br />"oh those RWNJs, they something something blanket statement"<br /><br />"Leftists do this", "Righties do that". Everyone points at each other and nothing serious really gets done. The changes that do occur are superficial and are more meant to drive immediate public perception rather than effect real lasting beneficial change for the population as a whole.<br /><br />Perhaps a tweet to demonstrate:<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">What I love most about Justin Trudeau is that everything he does seems engineered to make Stephen Harper's balls ache.</div>— Iva Cheung (@IvaCheung) <a href="https://twitter.com/IvaCheung/status/738226874191486977">June 2, 2016</a></blockquote>Engineered. What an excellent choice of description, it's what I'd call it myself. But not to make "Stephen Harper's balls ache", but to portray the perception of "change" when little has actually changed at all. Here is an example:<br /><br /><a href="http://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/trudeau-and-ambrose-spar-over-the-role-of-canadian-special-forces-in-iraq" target="_blank">Public being misled about Canadian special forces in Iraq, says Ambrose</a><br /><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“Is the Prime Minister finally prepared to admit that Canada’s mission in Iraq is combat?” Ambrose added.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">But Trudeau maintained that the “mission in Iraq is support and assist. It is focused on training. It is not a direct combat mission. It is not a combat mission, it is focused on empowering local troops to counter ISIL.”&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>The interesting part is that when this issue came up in the fall of 2014 and early 2015 when the Conservatives were in power, they insisted the same mission was also training….not combat.</b></span></blockquote>Even the article couldn't help but note how interesting it is that the tables seem to have turned. Or maybe it's that the party in power isn't really different at all. That there is an agenda at play that extends beyond party ideology. The government and opposition pretend to be at odds with each other, pretend to be opponents, but in reality the differences are minor, and superficial. Those good old "people issues" while the issues of importance to the state and banking sectors continue unabated.<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Much like the false duality of left/right (red vs blue), on the inside it's all the same. <a href="https://t.co/ntGfe1S2sA">https://t.co/ntGfe1S2sA</a></div>— Richard Fantin (@RichardFantin) <a href="https://twitter.com/RichardFantin/status/738134885009752065">June 1, 2016</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>I found this tweet of the "fancyness" of the parliamentary gallery having both Coke (red) and Pepsi (blue) in the same ice bucket an apt metaphor for the sham we call a democracy. Out here in the consumer world it's Coke or Pepsi, The difference between the two? minimal. There is a difference, and people have their preference and each establishment (district) has their preference, but ultimately what is it? Cola. Coke Cola, or Pepsi Cola, but it's always gunna be Cola. The mental construct of the brand is so much bigger and more prevalent than the product.<br /><br />Stephen Harper is doing just fine. I can assure you he isn't losing any sleep over the reign of the Liberals. His time as a lackey of the banks' agenda simply provided a springboard for the real power he <a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAKCN0YG2F0" target="_blank">will now have as a member of whatever international corporations he decided to join</a>. You know, the type of global businesses that <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/27/emails-show-tpp-collusion-between-big-banks-obama-administration?utm_campaign=shareaholic&amp;utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_source=socialnetwork" target="_blank">collude with governments to create trade bills we sign on to like the T.P.P.</a>&nbsp;A TPP Trudeau fully supports, of course.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics/trudeau-tracker-anti-terrorism-bill-1.3586337" target="_blank">And how about C51</a>?<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in November that finding the right balance between national security and individual rights is critical.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"We recognize that it's an urgent matter," he told reporters then. "Canadians are expecting to see those proposals quickly but the principle is clear… that balance between making sure Canadians are safe and making sure their civil rights and the values of Canadians are properly protected."&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Since then, the government has appointed Liberal MP David McGuinty to <b>study how other countries, such as the United States and Britain, oversee the activities of their intelligence agencies and to make recommendations for a Canadian system.</b></span></blockquote>Oh good, the U.S. and Britain! Excellent models don't you think?<br /><br /><a href="http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/05/13/hidden-microphones-exposed-as-part-of-government-surveillance-program-in-the-bay-area/" target="_blank">Hidden Microphones Exposed As Part of Government Surveillance Program In The Bay Area</a><br /><div><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/kincora-boys-home-historic-abuse-inquiry-to-examine-abuse-claims-a7057116.html" target="_blank">MI5 'used sexual abuse of children at Kincora to blackmail the politician paedophiles'</a>&nbsp;(<i>this type of blackmail is VERY common</i>)</div><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/technology/governments-turn-to-commercial-spyware-to-intimidate-dissidents.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0" target="_blank">Governments Turn to Commercial Spyware to Intimidate Dissidents</a><br /><div><a href="https://news.vice.com/article/exclusive-canada-police-obtained-blackberrys-global-decryption-key-how" target="_blank">Exclusive: Canadian Police Obtained BlackBerry’s Global Decryption Key</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Like, do people not remember that it was the U.S. and U.K. and the Snowden revelations that have created the heightened concern about intelligence agencies going way beyond what they should be able to in the first place? But creating an oppressive surveillance state is again another one of those agendas that transcends the party line.</div><div><br /></div><div>When it comes to the Saudi arms deal even the CBC <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-saudi-arabia-arms-lav-contract-liberals-conservatives-neil-macdonald-1.3534795" target="_blank">can't help but note how similar the current and previous governments are</a>:</div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Well. If further proof was needed that the sunny new regime in Ottawa is perfectly capable of behaving just like the un-sunny previous regime, we now have it, in a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/saudi-arms-deal-documents-1.3533082">memo that was stamped "Secret,</a>" then rather inconveniently laid bare in the Federal Court of Canada.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The document, signed by Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion, is a gem of hair-splitting, parsing, wilful blindness and justification for selling billions worth of fighting vehicles and weaponry to Saudi Arabia, one of the most oppressive regimes on Earth.</span></blockquote>Again, another important state and banking issue that continues right along with the old agenda.<br /><br />Even Jodie Emery is realizing the Trudeau government isn't going to be the legalization utopia she had dreamed of.<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Licensed Producers told Gov't to raid cannabis dispensaries due to "the threat it poses to the industry" <a href="https://t.co/LGyddK0tjp">https://t.co/LGyddK0tjp</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cdnpoli?src=hash">#cdnpoli</a></div>— Jodie Emery (@JodieEmery) <a href="https://twitter.com/JodieEmery/status/738506509999476736">June 2, 2016</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Yet prior to the election Mark Emery just didn't want to hear it (and as you can see Press for Truth totally nailed the scam that is marijuana legalization):<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RmZtjiHCY0s" width="560"></iframe></div><br />Coke, or Pepsi. Red, or Blue. The same, or the same.<br /><br />If Harper was our Bush, Trudeau is our Obama. We think "change" is finally here, but it's Harper that implemented the "change". It's how the system manipulates the public: a politician comes in, makes many unpopular changes then a popular one comes in and doesn't change much at all and simply utilizes the changes passed by the previous government. The anger about those changes leaves with the previous political party but the changes themselves? <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics/trudeau-tracker-anti-terrorism-bill-1.3586337" target="_blank">Those remain</a>.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">In the meantime, CSIS director Michel Coulombe told a Senate committee two months ago that <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/csis-power-disrupt-refugees-1.3479844">the spy agency has used the new powers granted under C-51 about two dozen times</a>. And he told senators he expected they would use those powers again.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>But for what, and how many times, he wouldn't say. Protecting national security remains, for now, beyond the scope of parliamentary oversight.</b></span></blockquote>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/06/struggles-of-non-partisan.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-5696754699247483276Fri, 03 Jun 2016 05:55:00 +00002016-06-03T01:47:10.856-06:00The "growth funk" and feelings of securityI put my dog down yesterday. Humble Pie. It was quite possibly one of the hardest moments of my life. My dog was a free dog, she never had a leash she never had a collar, she stayed by my side of her own free will. She trusted me, that I would keep her safe right up to the very moment I nodded and the vet put her to sleep for good.<br /><br />I took her to her favourite park before going to the vet. She died on her favourite blanket, in her favourite position, cuddled in my arms thinking she was safe.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dxnFT3g1v18/V0_Ta0FXJhI/AAAAAAAADqk/YNVG_mKPW8EgGaD3eUmc2k8YEQ1H4BFBQCLcB/s1600/download_20150310_122650.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dxnFT3g1v18/V0_Ta0FXJhI/AAAAAAAADqk/YNVG_mKPW8EgGaD3eUmc2k8YEQ1H4BFBQCLcB/s320/download_20150310_122650.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Humble Pie</td></tr></tbody></table>She wasn't.<br /><br />Whether this was the right decision at the right time is a question that is going to haunt me for a long time. The timing was due to other aspects of my life, combined with her already being quite old. I feel selfish, I feel like I betrayed her and her trust and I should have tried harder. But most of all I wish I could have asked how she felt, warned her it was coming, anything. I couldn't, it was my decision and mine alone. It's the feeling of betrayal which is haunting me most of all. But what else could I do? The worst part is I think even if I could have warned her, I wouldn't have, for her sense of security. It's been a very conflicting day as I battle with the different point of views that insist on infiltrating my head.<br /><br />The feeling of security is a powerful influence on life. In the moment of her death she felt totally secure, not afraid, and then it just happened. She never saw it coming. The feeling of security (and insecurity) however is also an excellent tool of manipulation.<br /><br />It's a constant theme in movies, agents working above the law to protect the public from unknown evils, governments being aware of events and not providing a warning to their people. Usually in some form to keep the public "safe" from certain chaos if the stupid peasants found out. Mass manipulation of this sort is often portrayed as for the good of the people. Much as ultimately the involuntary betrayal of Humble's trust was for the good of her (I hope anyway) and my desire for her to not die in fear, pain, or alone.<br /><br />The status-quo wields the weapons of security, and insecurity quite effectively. The feeling of security is inherently anti-change while the feeling of insecurity is inherently pro-change. Feeding the population a balance of the two can produce any desired results. Using the feeling of security Humble Pie had no desire to change her situation, despite being in a strange place with a strange person at the most dangerous moment of her life yet the slightest feeling of insecurity throughout her life would send her skittering away even though it was all mostly harmless.<br /><br />False security is a blinder, and Canadians are chalk full of false security.<br /><br />I had an interesting Twitter exchange today about the Chinese diplomat "berating" our poor journalist for asking about human rights violations. An interesting choice of words isn't it? "berates"?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/chinese-foreign-minister-berates-reporter-1.3611510" target="_blank">I found one thing the diplomat said to be very interesting:</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Other people don't know better than the Chinese people about the human rights condition in China and it is the Chinese people who are in the best situation, in the best position to have a say about China's human rights situation," he continued.</span>&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"So I would like to suggest to you that please don't ask questions in such an irresponsible manner. We welcome goodwill suggestions but we reject groundless or unwarranted accusations."</span></blockquote>We over here look at such statements likely with disbelief, because we know the Chinese indoctrinate their people with propaganda in fact our media ensures we know it. However I think it's also probably safe to say that many Canadians would believe the statement if it were said about us. Even <a href="http://www.amnesty.ca/get-involved/lead-in-your-community/empty-words-and-double-standards-canadas-failure-to-respect-and-" target="_blank">if we were called out on human rights abuses</a>, we know better, because we're Canadian. Surely us being Canadian must mean we are in the best situation, the best position, to have a say about Canada's human rights situation. But where are the journalists asking about it at every opportunity?<br /><br />And round and round it goes. Of course if it didn't happen on your T.V. it didn't happen, did it? Do you really believe the Chinese are being indoctrinated with pro-nationalist crap and you aren't? What do you hear more about China's abuses? Or <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/03/09/canada-first-nations-water_n_9420970.html" target="_blank">Canada's</a>? From who? Now go read China's news.<br /><br />Every country does it, the world does it, and why? The feeling of security. Not security from the terrorist boogymen but security of self, of purpose, of that feeling that you're the "good guy", that you're right and they're wrong.<br /><br />What's funny is the diplomat is totally correct, it was irresponsible to ask, Canadians just don't understand why. We see that as some sign of journalistic freedom, while the Chinese view it as a form of disrespect. He was here because we want to do business with the Chinese. As I warned in my piece "<a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2012/05/canada-may-be-secretly-preparing-to.html" target="_blank">Canada may be preparing to decouple from the USD</a>":<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: &quot;verdana&quot; , &quot;geneva&quot; , sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">These nations we are aligning with however do not cherish democracy as we do. We will be a minority in this new alliance, and of this we should be wary.</span></blockquote>We want in with them, not the other way around. But it makes for a great drum-beating headline as Canadians are once again fed the false security of the supposed international concern Canada has for human rights. It makes us feel good and feeling good is essential to maintaining control and a feeling of trust, even if the actions being taken are knowingly harmful and against our best interests.<br /><br />Take the Flint water crisis, for example, it has all the trademarks. The government not warning the people, the false sense of security in the idea that the U.S. is an "advanced nation" so something like that couldn't possibly be happening, and yet.. there it is. It is happening, and will continue to happen, and if you think that's the only one you're still lying to yourself.<br /><br />The government knowing about the ultimate non-viability of oilsands and not warning Albertans is another example. Hell it seems half the population still thinks theres a boom coming any day now. Instead it was pushed and pushed as the future for short term gain and <a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/numbers-on-energy-industry-growth-climate-commitments-don-t-add-up-report-1.2928876#_gus&amp;_gucid=&amp;_gup=twitter&amp;_gsc=OnQbghZ" target="_blank">even today is pushing a belief system to keep Canadians invested in a failed endeavour</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; line-height: 1.3; margin-top: 19px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"Barring an economic collapse, therefore, Canada will have to reconsider its planned oil and gas production growth and demand real emissions reductions from the oil and gas sector in order to have any hope of meeting its ... commitment," Hughes writes.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;">&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; line-height: 1.3; margin-top: 19px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Alex Ferguson, a vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said technological change in the oilsands is likely to prove Hughes's assumptions wrong.</span><span style="background-color: transparent;">&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; line-height: 1.3; margin-top: 19px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"You're going to see something in the next three, four, five years or so in terms of proving some of that out," he said. "<b>We, collectively, need to make a conscious bet that technology is going to help us in this challenge.</b>"</span></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 1.3; margin-top: 19px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yes. Instead of prepare for the inevitable what we should do instead is make a "collective conscious <u>bet</u>" on the future. And if we lose that bet? Well, no one really knows, do they? By the way how are those tailings reclamations coming? Got any new ones besides the fake one you just moved the tailings out of to "prove" you could reclaim one? Of course as I've discussed in previous posts what they are just glossing over is that most of these "innovations" translate to automation as well. The belief that the oilsands will come roaring back to life is wrapped in the <b><u>security</u></b> that the jobs will return with them. They won't - but hey<a href="http://calgaryherald.com/business/energy/calgary-oil-and-gas-company-blames-order-protecting-sage-grouse-for-its-demise" target="_blank"> I give them an 'E for effort' coming up with their excuses why not..</a></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 1.3; margin-top: 19px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In fact if global growth doesn't return, oil demand won't either which brings me to my next article of interest on another topic that is wrapped in a false security with statements like "best recovery in the G7" or "Strong regulated banks": The absolute gong show the global economy has become.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 1.3; margin-top: 19px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I caught an interesting sponsored article in the Financial Times, which closes with something quite profound. That the FT would publish it, sponsored or not, is quite interesting unto itself. This isn't ZeroHedge but the FT and the second question I couldn't help but ask was, who is this for? It was written by an investment firm BlackRock but I'm finding it difficult to find a clear reason why they would pay for it to be published.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: arial; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 1.3; margin-top: 19px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="http://business.financialpost.com/active-investor/world-watches-canadas-fiscal-stimulus-experiment" target="_blank">World watches Canada’s fiscal stimulus experiment</a></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>As central banks exhaust their ammunition</b>, some countries are turning to debt-driven fiscal stimulus. Canada’s own stimulus program may help boost the domestic economy, says Aubrey Basdeo, managing director and head of fixed income at BlackRock Canada. <b>On the other hand, it may lead to unintended consequences, including rising interest rates and an overvalued currency.</b></span><b>&nbsp;</b><i>(RF: Which also means an undervalued USD relative to the countries they would import from (<a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2013/02/thw-why-and-how-of-us-hyperinflation.html" target="_blank">read more</a>))</i></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“<b>Central bank monetary policy has helped drive asset prices higher with the help of interest rate cuts and quantitative easing since the financial crisis</b>,” he says. “<b>But the effectiveness of these policies may be starting to wane and the ability of global central banks to respond to the next downturn appears limited</b>.”</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Interest rate cuts could lose their effectiveness if borrowers become accustomed to a low-interest-rate landscape because there’s no rush to borrow or invest. <b>Low rates also make savers poorer, reducing consumer demand.</b></span><b>&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“Negative interest rate policies by the likes of the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank that are targeted at depreciating currencies may also be close to hitting a limit,” says Basdeo. “It may make sense to weaken your currency if you’re an exporting nation seeking growth, but when everyone else moves in the same way, it starts to lose its efficacy.”</span></b></blockquote>Just a note, notice that his reasoning for why consumers won't borrow even more is that they're "accustomed" to a low-interest rate environment yet also admits it makes savers poorer. Well, if you're not a borrower, and you're not a saver, what are you? Admitting that the emergency low interest environment isn't working is because consumers are tapped is a media no-no. They will talk about one, or the other, but never both at the same time which is absurd isn't it being that clearly your capacity to borrow more and more is obviously directly associated to your ability to service that debt. &nbsp;Anyway, moving on...<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">One policy option is a mix of broader credit easing by central banks, combined with either government spending on infrastructure projects and/or tax rebates. However, many governments are wary of deficits.</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“When you come out of a debt binge like the one preceding the financial crisis, the last thing you want to do is go on another binge,” says Basdeo.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Governments and consumers have reduced debt loads since the financial crisis. Corporations, however, have borrowed heavily. Yet instead of investing in new plants and equipment to improve productivity and spur growth, they have leveraged inexpensive debt to buy back stock and pay dividends to investors.</span>&nbsp;</b><i>(RF: aka "the recovery")</i></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Basdeo says the world will be looking carefully at the Canadian government’s gambit to rack up a stimulus debt of $113 billion over the next five years, most of it earmarked for infrastructure spending. Australia has also pulled the trigger on a A$37-billion stimulus program and a rate cut.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“If Canadian and Australian fiscal stimulus boosts economic growth and bolsters consumer and corporate spending, then other countries may adopt similar fiscal approaches,” he says.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The downside risk? When governments spend, interest rates could rise. That would increase capital flows into the country, pushing up currency values.</span>&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“For a small, open economy dependent on trade, this scenario would be particularly negative to Canada when we are trying to boost our economy through manufacturing exports that benefit from a lower loonie,” says Basdeo.</span>&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Japan, the poster child for deficit infrastructure spending, also offers a note of caution. After more than 20 years, the policy has resulted in little growth.</span>&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The growth funk miring most major developed economies remains a headwind to future growth in Canada, Basdeo adds.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>“As a result, the Canadian deficit experiment may lack the punch on its own that would sustain it as a model for others to follow,” he says. “Rather than wait to see if it works, the optimum solution is likely a coordinated, comprehensive global policy response which relaxes excessive dependence on central bank policy and begins a renewed effort to achieve good growth via deficit spending.”</b></span></blockquote>The "growth funk". Cute, isn't it? And despite no modern economics reason for it we continue to believe infinite growth is possible. The last paragraph is the kicker: "the optimum solution is likely a coordinated, comprehensive global policy response which relaxes excessive dependence on central bank policy and begins a renewed effort to achieve good growth via deficit spending". He is calling for the start of a centralized global economic system, which naturally is going to be presented as the "solution" to the problem governments and central banks are knowingly creating, the prosperity they are stealing from the future with not one ounce of evidence it can be paid back. We're doubling down on the bet that the future will be incredibly larger than the present when the evidence suggests everything but, and those in charge know this. There will be no warning.<br /><br />The attempts by governments to push people more and more into debt to prevent the credit markets from deflating are becoming ever more aggressive.&nbsp;<a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/2737544/gas-prices-soar-in-newfoundland-and-labrador-as-new-tax-comes-into-effect/" target="_blank">Take this interesting quote about the recent gas tax hike in Newfoundland:</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“<b>People will have to make other arrangements to ensure they are carrying a bit more cash or extend their credit or ensure they have enough on their Visa to pay for gasoline</b>,” said Dan McTeague, a senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com. “Newfoundland is now home to the most expensive gasoline in North America and likely the Western Hemisphere.”</span></blockquote>As I've pointed out before, even the "feminist" <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2012/11/the-trudeauth-of-matter.html" target="_blank">Justin Trudeau is well aware how this system works</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">I opened my campaign last month with the argument that, if the Liberal Party is to become a positive force for change in Canada, we need to give voice to the aspirations of our middle class.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Personal income for middle-class Canadians has stagnated for more than a generation. This deeply troubling development is masked by a rise in family income, due to the entry of a new generation of well-educated, hard-working women into the workforce. <b>While this phenomenon is overwhelmingly positive, we must be clear-eyed in understanding that it is a one-time benefit.</b></span></blockquote>It all sounds great until you reach that last line. A "one time benefit", just as new suckers entering into a ponzi are a "one time benefit". His article went on to say:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">So, we’re left with the vexing question: <b>where will the next wave of growth for the middle class come from?</b></span></blockquote>The "next wave of growth". As in what new suckers will we find to keep the unsustainable "disturbing trend" of wage stagnation and a consumer economy going. His article went on to describe how Canada's economic future resided in China, and emerging markets. The same China Canada's journalist insulted by raising the issue of human rights on a business trip. We just don't get it, democracy is a game and our new business partners -- which we are relying on for the "next wave of growth", despite the fact all indicators show that China will likely not be the source of growth we'd hoped -- aren't playing it. <a href="http://www.globaltrademag.com/global-trade-daily/news/growth-in-world-energy-use-to-be-led-by-asia" target="_blank">Nor do they need to</a>.<br /><br />Our own concern for "human rights" is absolute bullshit as our government sells Saudi Arabia military equipment who <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-rights-un-saudi-yemen-idUSKCN0YO2RK" target="_blank">was just added to a U.N. blacklist for killing children in their war on Yemen</a>&nbsp;while <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-keeps-analysis-of-saudi-human-rights-record-under-wraps/article28068909/" target="_blank">making excuses for that human rights record</a>. And who can blame us, we need that "next wave of growth" don't we? <a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/2721927/canadas-defence-industry-increasingly-selling-abroad-report/" target="_blank">There's good money to be had</a>.<br /><br />And how about our TFW's <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/gopublic/jamaican-farm-worker-sent-home-in-a-casket-1.3577643" target="_blank">where in a recent article the program was described as "worse than slavery"</a>?<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Hundreds of those workers have been sent home from Canada in similar circumstances, a practice known as "medical repatriation."&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>"It's worse than slavery — they dispose of them," Barrett told Go Public.</b></span></blockquote>Where's the outrage, huh?<br /><br />Meanwhile the global game continues. <a href="https://www.rt.com/business/345046-russia-saudi-us-assets/#.V08_vfSmPw4.twitter" target="_blank">Russia and Saudi Arabia dumped $50 billion in U.S. assets last year and it doesn't look like they're going to slow down</a>. The OECD, knowing that the jig is up on growth, is now preparing people for feudalism saying <a href="http://jobs%20more%20important%20than%20wage%20gap%2C%20says%20oecd/" target="_blank">"don't worry about the wage gap, worry about jobs"</a>. Which shouldn't surprise anyone as western corporations fight fiercely <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/restaurants-canada-minimum-wage-alberta-2016-1.3613769" target="_blank">against any sort of increase in wages</a>.<br /><br />But nevermind. Back to your regularly scheduled feeling of security.<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CcCkJNgG5VM" width="420"></iframe></div><br />http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/06/the-growth-funk-and-feelings-of-security.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-7974039984674643643Wed, 16 Mar 2016 07:23:00 +00002016-03-16T03:08:42.212-06:00Open letter to 'Albertans First'I've been observing your movement mature for some time now George Clark. I'm not writing for the purpose of focusing on the miss-spelling of coup d'etat, or to talk about your sign. I want to address your position, and reasoning, regarding Alberta's current issues as frankly I think you're putting the blame in the wrong place and are simply wasting the government's time, and depleting reserves, in your efforts. I deeply care about Alberta's future, I've been writing on the culmination of numerous issues for nearly 6 years many of which cross-over with your hasty, and incorrect, observations.<br /><br />The movement you have created is contributing heavily to what is becoming an increasingly divisive, and toxic, political climate with few if any actual solutions to the real problems which as hard as it may be for you to hear have existed and have been building for quite some time. Not because of "the Liberals", or "the leftists", or whatever blanket label you want to throw around as though there are only two strict sets of rules for political ideologies to follow but because Alberta's perceived prosperity was always assuredly time limited and I intend to show you these issues exist across the political spectrum. While you may admit that the PCAA made many mistakes contributing to Alberta's situation your movement did not choose to exist while those mistakes were being made. I have been vocal for a long time, George, no one was listening.<br /><br />To demonstrate what I mean by this here is&nbsp;<a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/04/the-alberta-debate-2015-abvote.html" target="_blank">a post I made prior to the election of the NDP</a>. As you can see it discusses what I viewed as some of the upcoming problems Alberta would be facing (Canada too, really) such as abandoned oil&amp; gas wells skyrocketing and an interesting quote from Jim Prentice, a Stephen Harper favourite where he called what we can see today is essentially an imploding labour market "an opportunity" for oil &amp; gas companies to take advantage of favourable conditions.<br /><br />I've been following this descent from grace for some time, George, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/greg-weston-oilsands-crippled-by-soaring-costs-memo-says-1.1146152" target="_blank">for instance here is one of my favourite links few Albertans ever want to seem to acknowledge, or address</a>,&nbsp;from 2012, discussing a memo about the soaring costs of oilsands development:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">A confidential government memorandum obtained by CBC News warns <b>that soaring costs of developing the Alberta oilsands could put the brakes on the massive project, stalling one of the main engines of the Canadian economy.&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The booming oilsands industry supports tens of thousands of Canadian jobs, and pumps billions of dollars a year into the national economy.&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>The memo written by Mark Corey, one of the highest-ranking officials in the federal Department of Natural Resources, warns that if the current trend of spiralling labour and other costs continues, investors may start to turn off the tap on the massive amounts of money needed to develop the oilsands.&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>"Although current crude prices promote oilsands development, ever-increasing capital and operating costs could make this price insufficient to support oilsands development at forecast levels," Corey writes.&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Cost increases are currently "the biggest risk to investment in the sector," and could jeopardize the viability of some projects, he says.&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Rising labour costs&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>The memo estimates that operating and capital costs to extract a barrel of oil from the tar-like sands have both more than doubled over the past decade.&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">It blames a chronic shortage of workers and resulting sky-high labour costs as the main cause of increased operating expenses.&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Corey's memo reflects a growing concern inside government over the future of the oilsands, and specifically the massive amount of capital investment that will be needed to fuel their continued development.&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver recently estimated the oilsands would need $650 billion in capital investments in the next decade alone — almost five times what's been spent there over the past 50 years.&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The memo written in April this year was obtained under the Access to Information Act and appears to have been prepared for Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The document pre-dates the Harper government's current review of foreign takeovers of two Canadian energy companies.&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">It nonetheless bolsters the contention of many in industry and government that Canada can hardly afford to turn away foreign investment in the oilsands.</blockquote>In the latter half of 2014 <a href="http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/fp-energy-aug-22-cost-cutting-fever?__lsa=1ea1-62b6" target="_blank">I caught this article from the Financial Post</a>&nbsp;titled 'Cost-cutting fever grips oil sands players as economics called into question' and as you'll see in the article itself was published before the collapse in oil price:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Canadian oil companies are ruthlessly enforcing capital discipline as project costs creep up and shareholders pressure management to focus only on the most profitable ventures.&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>Suncor Energy Inc. announced a billion-dollar cut for the rest of the year even though the company raised its oil price forecast.&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Others such as Athabasca Oil Corp., PennWest Exploration Ltd., Talisman Energy Inc. and Sunshine Oil Sands Ltd. are also cutting back due to a mix of internal corporate issues and project uncertainty. Cenovus Energy Inc. is also facing cost pressures at its Foster Creek oil sands facility.&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b>“Given that the low-bearing fruit have already been developed, the next wave of oil sands project are coming from areas where geology might not be as uniform,” said Dinara Millington, senior vice president at the Canadian Energy Research Institute.</b></blockquote>The NDP government is not making the situation worse, George, you just didn't realize how bad the situation already was. With oil at $100 and a PC government the industry was still barely turning a profit. I've seen a lot of statements from you that say things like "we were doing fine when oil was $10 barrel", read those articles and you will understand why.<br /><br />I don't disagree with every single one of your positions on specific issues particularly in regards to the Carbon Tax (from a certain point of view which can <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2014/07/a-carbon-tax-is-never-going-to-work-for.html">be found here</a>). Nor do I disagree with some of your points on wind turbines (<a href="http://dgrnewsservice.org/civilization/ecocide/extraction/kim-hill-whats-wrong-with-renewable-energy/">in fact I believe environmentalists have some hard truths to account for</a>). But what I do disagree with is your whole movement sat on their hands when "times were good" while the prior governments gambled on the futures market and called that a budget or "action plan", whichever you prefer. Where were you then?<br /><br />Your clear bias against the NDP government and the very disproportional amount of blame you've laid at their feet is irresponsible, uninformed, and regardless of the political football outcome will not solve Alberta's problems because it does not address them. Simply saying "no carbon tax" doesn't address the myriad of other issues actually creating the problems you're complaining about - the carbon tax not being one of them. If you're truly concerned about Albertans, their futures, their jobs, and their prosperity then you will be honest with yourself about our situation and put your political views aside. <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/albertas-new-permanent-reality.html" target="_blank">There is no easy way out of this situation, and we're in for many years of pain if we ever recover at all</a>.<br /><br />The industry and governments bought by the industry intentionally lied to Albertans George. They knew, and they didn't tell you. Increasingly <a href="http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/how-canadas-oilsands-are-paving-the-way-for-driverless-trucks-and-the-threat-of-big-layoffs" target="_blank">they are looking at automation</a>, and<a href="http://www.albertaoilmagazine.com/2015/09/mining-project-oil-sands/" target="_blank"> there will be no more 4000 man camps</a>, did they tell you that? Is that because of the NDP too? No, it's because the oilsands are expensive to produce and the profits for foreign owners mean more than your job, your house, your future, George.<br /><br />This is why people like me have been screaming for years for the PCAA government to do anything, raise royalties, enforce environmental regulations, anything, to protect our future and the prosperity of our children and you know what George? No one listened.http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/03/open-letter-to-albertans-first.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-7164025100827480793Thu, 25 Feb 2016 10:05:00 +00002016-02-25T13:12:17.338-07:00The great deflation and what comes next<div class="tr_bq">I haven't written anything since the election on October 19th. I felt it pointless, Canadians were too obsessed with false victories in the political spectrum. "Defeating Harper" and the sort even though really the public has just once again been manipulated into doing exactly what was desired as I wrote about during the federal election breakdown 4 part series last year. Such as it is the honey moon has worn off and no amount of fancy public relations can hide the effects of <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/02/understanding-low-interest-in-risk_20.html" target="_blank">the great deflation</a>, and <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/333411-israel-canada-boycott-motion/#.Vs4aDhryl_M.twitter" target="_blank">new bosses that look a lot more like the old bosses each and every day</a>.</div><br />Look around folks, just.. look around.<br /><br />The world is sinking into chaos.<br /><br />Here at home Canadians are bickering about pipelines and other useless drivel as the elephant in the room goes unmentioned. The "west vs east" divisive lines I don't think have ever been so prominent in my life time. In many extreme "right-wing" circles there's even been talk of separation; silly of course but still, it's new. Or old, depending how you look at it. Articles like "<a href="http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/fortney-its-raining-schadenfreude-on-calgary-and-alberta" target="_blank">It's raining schadenfreude on Calgary and Alberta</a>" actually exist. The more the economic situation deteriorates, the worse the baseless finger pointing will become.<br /><br />"It's the NDP". "It was the Conservatives". "It was Justin, and his hair".<br /><br />You all need to just stop and think for a minute.. just what is it you expect to happen?<br /><br />Look elsewhere in the world, it's not just here. Divisive fault lines are showing up everywhere. The <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/franois-crepeau-statement-on-migrant-crisis-in-europe-2016-2" target="_blank">"European Union" is falling apart as their already horrid ponzi-conomy has just been laden with the additional cost of refugees</a> courtesy of <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-23/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-us-created-isis-tool-overthrow-syrias-president-assad" target="_blank">NATO's war in Syria</a>. <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/02/23/exclusive-china-sends-fighter-jets-to-contested-island-in-south-china-sea.html" target="_blank">China is escalating it's direct challenge to the U.S. in the South China Sea</a>. Russia. The Middle East. And surrounding all of this conflict is intense divisions. You want to understand how divide and conquer works? You're witnessing it.<br /><br />The great deflation is going to be a very trying time for a lot of people. Here is a portion of what I wrote early last year on the great deflation:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The majority of the world economy is now supported by near zero, zero, or negative interest rates. Seven years on from the peak-oil induced "great recession" central banks are finally out of ammo. Inevitably this situation can not last forever and with the Saudi's pushing the collapse in oil price the stage has been set, and in fact the play is already in the first act, for deflationary spiral the world has never seen the likes of before because the world has never seen a fiat asset bubble of this size before.<br /><br /><b>The expected benefit economists are expecting from lower oil and gas prices are not going to materialize as the middle class which is the primary driver of this trend has been crushed by unaffordable consumption and debt accumulation. The easiest path for this excess wealth to take is towards paying down debt which in itself is inherently deflationary and will only contribute further to the deflationary spiral we've entered.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>The artificial deflation of oil is having a direct effect on the outlook for oil related employment and income which both Canada and the U.S. have been completely reliant on for wealth generation. The entire myth of the current "U.S. recovery" which Canadian economists are banking on is essentially based on the economic performance of the shale oil industry prior to the collapse in price (you'll remember the latest U.S. recovery narrative was originally about the boom of shale oil) which is no longer valid.</b> Without the high incomes oil related jobs provide the unaffordable asset bubbles become completely unbalanced. This is why the Bank of Canada is citing mitigating the effect of low oil prices (lower inflation) as the reason for lowering interest rates while effectively ignoring the increase in inflation high oil prices represent. They are selectively interpreting the situation to service their own needs of maintaining the credit markets.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">No amount of low interest or free currency can ever hope to make up for the loss in energy bounty as a result of peak oil and the focus on low EROI energy production though as currency is not wealth itself but the representation of wealth, it has an end of life and this is where C51 becomes very important for the status-quo.</span></blockquote>It's now one year later, was I right?<br /><br />The divisive environment in Canada is being driven, and I believe purposely fomented, on a false pretence; that if only we will build pipelines, if only people will stop talking badly about the oilsands, if only, the Canadian economy will come roaring back to life. That the job losses will stop, and the jobs return. It keeps the focus, and the arguments, and the finger pointing around a single topic: pipelines, and not say the more important topic we should be talking about: are the oilsands even viable to produce at any price?<br /><br />This oil price collapse really couldn't have come at a better time for Alberta's oil companies who prior to the collapse, when they were even projecting oil to go higher, <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2014/08/when-it-comes-to-oilsands-stable-price.html" target="_blank">were already planning cuts to labour and investment</a>. Companies <a href="http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/how-canadas-oilsands-are-paving-the-way-for-driverless-trucks-and-the-threat-of-big-layoffs?__lsa=5f23-4ca4" target="_blank">have been looking at automation as a solution</a> to the labour problem the oilsands have created for years. Of course readers of this blog should know all about '<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/greg-weston-oilsands-crippled-by-soaring-costs-memo-says-1.1146152" target="_blank">the labour problem</a>'. Despite the <a href="http://www.theprovince.com/business/encana+workforce+further+previous+downsizing/11740640/story.html" target="_blank">heartfelt rhetoric of guys like Doug Suttles who says the layoffs are the worst he's seen</a> (and I also presume ever responsible for) the unspoken and it seems long forgotten reality here is that <u><b>the layoffs and drying up of investment in the oilsands were already happening anyway</b></u>.<br /><br />Low oil prices has simply provided an excuse to speed up this process and not take the blame. What little blame has been remaining and not directed at the Saudi's has been kindly redirected towards the new NDP government by the always helpful and awfully plentiful "grass roots" movements that for some reason always seem to have ties back to industry.<br /><br />The blame game has left very few people talking about the very real problems Alberta and subsequently all of Canada is and is about to be facing. Take for instance the massive expense of cleaning abandoned oil and gas wells which I was discussing <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/04/the-alberta-debate-2015-abvote.html" target="_blank">in my Alberta Election post</a>&nbsp;which have now <a href="http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/landowners-fight-for-enforcement-of-inactive-well-sites-in-alberta" target="_blank">come to the forefront</a> among many other issues. <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/enbridge-posts-fourfold-rise-in-profit-as-crude-shipments-increase/article28810914/" target="_blank">Enbridge has set a long term plan to move away from oilsands all together</a>.<br /><br />It should be noted that all around the world the oil situation isn't exactly good. The deal to "freeze production" between the Sauds and Russians should be of particular interest for those who understand the geopolitical game at foot here. As<a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/01/trends-and-forecasts-for-2015.html" target="_blank"> I wrote last year</a> an informed Twitter follower informed me that the Saudi's were not working against the Russians, but were working with them. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/02/21/geopolitics-of-oil-takes-new-twist-with-saudi-russia-deal/" target="_blank">This new deal</a>, which is not a deal I should point out between the Saud's and so-called 'Saudi-America', continues to fit the grand story of global divestment out of the USD. Divestment which is becoming so noticable that <a href="http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=974d25f5-8c5a-4bc2-a65c-3fbdc12fbdef" target="_blank">even the National Post wrote something about it</a>.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">It is a chilling statement from an expert on both gold and China. But he is speaking the truth: In a G2 world (the United States and China), he who is the piper calls the tune, and China holds a US$2-trillion mortgage on the United States and is not happy. <b>This country, along with others that lend money to the United States, such as Saudi Arabia, will determine the value of the U. S. dollar and gold. And they have spoken. They are not buying more U. S. treasuries and are buying gold as a new asset class. China announced that it was doing so quietly, and recent reports are that the Saudis and others have been buying bullion and hocked gold jewellery from around the world.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The only way is up for gold prices because the United States, which backstops the International Monetary Fund, the world's lender of last resort, has had to become its own lender of last resort.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Washington has cranked up the printing presses in an unprecedented way, replicating the behaviour of its spendthrift corporations and consumers. This year's budget is US$3.5-trillion, bigger than any in history.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">And as Ing points out, the "bi" in this bipolar global economy is China. Beijing has not only started to hoard gold but<b> has continued to talk up a new reserve currency concept to replace the U. S. dollar.</b> The only reason the Chinese and others don't dump U. S. dollars is because it would be like shooting themselves in the foot.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Inflation, on top of excessive money supply dilution, will (unless mitigated by growth or stoppage) reduce the dollar's value</b>. Ing estimates that the printing of money to bail out banks, autos and the U. S. economy will create a catch-up in gold bullion prices: "Gold should be US$9,000 an ounce to cover the [current and projected] U. S. monetary base," he says.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>China has become the world's fifth-biggest gold hoarder, in addition to being the world's biggest gold producer (through its government-owned mining companies).</b> I also suspect that China is behind the political sabotage in Mongolia, to its north, which has for five years prevented Ivanhoe Mines of Vancouver from producing gold and copper from its massive discovery.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Clearly, China also has been dis-investing from the U. S. dollar by getting slowly into hard assets (stock, commodities or ore bodies), which I have written about. This concerns Washington, which is why Hilary Clinton, U. S. Secretary of State, made her first state "house call" in Beijing to make nice with America's first mortgagor.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>At that time, and publicly, too, China warned the United States about its dollar woes, while suggesting a basket of currencies to replace its pre-eminence. These scary pronouncements were followed by an announcement in Washington a few weeks ago that there would be a massive U. S. Treasury buyback of U. S. bonds. Put another way, the Chinese and others aren't buying anymore so the surpluses are being mopped up by putting more on the taxpayer tab.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>It is an irreversible trend that China and others will continue to disinvest and diversify out of U. S. dollars, and that inflation will further impair the U. S. dollar's value. That's because the U. S. monetary/economic rescue is simply Washington's version of the excesses and over-leveraging that led to the need for a rescue in the first place.</b></span></blockquote>Speaking of gold, Canada <a href="http://globalnews.ca/news/2508940/canada-sells-nearly-half-of-all-its-gold-reserves/" target="_blank">just recently sold half it's reserves</a>. Yes, that's right. Half. So whatever the government "deficit" is you're hearing about these days, add half our gold supply to it.<br /><br />Are you starting to get the picture folks? This is not normal. <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-24/citi-we-have-problem" target="_blank">This is not normal at all</a>.<br /><br />When the Saudi Minister <a href="http://www.edmontonjournal.com/News/11738543/story.html" target="_blank">says things like this</a>:<br /><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“The producers of those high-cost barrels must find a way to lower their costs, borrow cash or liquidate,” the minister told a business audience in Houston during a speech at the IHS Ceraweek event on Tuesday.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“It sounds harsh, and unfortunately it is, but it is the most efficient way to rebalance markets. Cutting low-cost production to subsidize higher cost supplies only delays an inevitable reckoning.”</span></blockquote>You must understand what he is really doing: he is calling North American oil production out on it's bullshit. And worst still he shows the real target: the banks. Borrow more, he says. But he knows these oil companies can not borrow more, and that their hedges are now expiring, and <a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/business/dealbook/paragon-offshore-is-latest-of-about-60-oil-firms-to-file-for-bankruptcy.html?_r=1&amp;referer=https://t.co/bYMK1wQxMO" target="_blank">that the defaults are about to start rolling in</a>.<br /><br />Peak oil.<br /><br />I've seen a lot of people talking about peak oil lately. It's pretty amusing. Apparently we beat it. Because the world is producing excess oil apparently all the peak oil theory is junk. Nevermind that were producing much of it at a loss. Nevermind that for almost an entire decade now we've been talking about "the recovery". Nevermind that for the first time in modern economic history banks around the world are having to introduce negative interest rates <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/bank-of-canada-unveils-new-measures-to-deal-with-economic-shocks/article27643760/" target="_blank">which our own BoC has even discussed</a>. Just never. Fucking. Mind.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-fails-to-replace-oil-gas-production-for-first-time-in-22-years-1455926914" target="_blank">Exxon Fails to Replace Oil, Gas Production for First Time in 22 Years</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Exxon Mobil Corp. disclosed Friday that for the first time since 1994, it failed to find enough new oil and gas to replace what it produced last year.</span></blockquote><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/22/investing/oil-price-weak-investment/index.html" target="_blank">Oil investment is weakest in 30 years</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">That will be the first time since 1986 that upstream investment has fallen for two consecutive years, the agency said, warning that the collapse could be storing up problems for consumers further down the track.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>"It is easy for consumers to be lulled into complacency by ample stocks and low prices today, but they should heed the writing on the wall: the historic investment cuts we are seeing raise the odds of unpleasant oil-security surprises in the not too distant future," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol on Monday.</b></span></blockquote>So. Who can guess what comes next after the great deflation? Anyone? Bueller?<br /><br />Once the defaults really get rolling and work their way thru the banking system all confidence in oilsands and shale production will be destroyed. The levels of investment weve seen will not be returning. Ever. <b><u>EVER</u></b>. I really want that to sink in. When <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/albertas-new-permanent-reality.html" target="_blank">I discussed Alberta's new permanent reality</a>, I really did mean permanent.It will be when the damage is done that the Sauds, along with Russia, and their partner China will finally give North America exactly what we've been asking them for: they'll turn off the taps. And all hell will break loose. This is how they will put the final nail in the coffin of the U.S. dollar.<br /><br />By turning off the taps the price of oil will rise very rapidly, lacking it's own production North America will be forced to buy foreign oil <b>in whatever currency they choose</b>. They will not be choosing the U.S. dollar. This will also be the start of true hyperinflation in the U.S. as the energy shortage quickly adds pressure to deflation and they are forced to print more and more currency (borrow it from private banks at interest that is) to simply get life's necessities.<br /><br />It's not a pretty picture but unless the people all around the world stop pointing fingers, making baseless accusations, and petty demands and stop just long enough to realize we've all been had, these forecasts, like my previous ones, will quickly be upon us. Just look around.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-china-idUSKCN0VY18B?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=topNews&amp;utm_source=twitter" target="_blank">China says 'really needs' South China Sea defenses in face of United States</a><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eRf1m-SaFy0" width="560"></iframe></div>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2016/02/the-great-deflation-and-what-comes-next.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-7746628512226570329Mon, 19 Oct 2015 18:08:00 +00002015-10-19T12:08:05.501-06:00I do not care about niqabs and pot<div style="text-align: center;"><i>I do not care about niqabs and pot,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Child tax credits worth a little or a lot,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Who said what when seventeen,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Or peed in a cup-how obscene.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>I see through wars started for gain,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Pretending we care about people in pain.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The campaign managers must laugh into the night,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Watching partisans insult and fight.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Yet it doesn't really matter which party gets in,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>The banks own it all and they always win.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: right;">h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/popsicles10">@popsicles10</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/10/i-do-not-care-about-niqabs-and-pot.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-2787502041159615851Fri, 09 Oct 2015 07:29:00 +00002015-10-09T02:48:55.064-06:00#elxn42 breakdown - Part 4<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">In&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/elxn42-breakdown-part-1.html" style="background-color: white; color: #cc0000; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">part 1 of this post</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">&nbsp;we focused on the need for exponential growth and the monetary system behind our need for this type of growth. We learned that the monetary system in it's current form is a textbook definition of a Ponzi-scheme requiring ever growing production to meet ever growing debt at the top because at any given time there is always more total debt with interest than there is actual currency to pay for it and the only way to conjure up the currency needed to pay outstanding debt is to borrow even more currency resulting in a never ending cycle where the debt load and subsequent "growth" required are perfectly exponential.</span><br /><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">In&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/elxn42-breakdown-part-2.html" style="background-color: white; color: #660000; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px; text-decoration: none;">part 2 of this post</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">&nbsp;we looked at the resource wars currently going on with a focus on&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/may/13/1?CMP=share_btn_tw" style="background-color: white; color: #660000; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px; text-decoration: none;">it's relation to peak oil and pipelines</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">. The 14 year 'war on terror' has really been a resource war for the U.S. empire to position itself as the first and last global empire that is to be succeeded by corporations as we learned in Michael C. Ruppert's presentation.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">In <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/elxn42-breakdown-part-3.html">part 3 of this post</a> we looked at the macro effects and purpose of the TPP and free trade in general. Now&nbsp;<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-06/trans-pacific-partnership-permanently-locking-obama-agenda-40-global-economy">the TPP has been signed</a> though it still needs to be ratified by the incoming government (<a href="http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/bruce-m-hicks-these-were-unconstitutional-negotiations">it wasn't even supposed to be negotiated during the election anyway</a>&nbsp;and the (Harper) government has so far pledged $5.3 billion dollars of your tax dollars for the auto and agriculture industries to counter their expected losses).</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">I was originally going to dedicate this post to the final category of issues "governmental issues" however time is growing short before the election now and with the quickly developing geopolitical situation I can't be sure I'll have enough time before the election to write part 5 and this section was really just to complete the context for this post but it is really the summary of what I think about all of this and how it ties into the election which is most important so we are going to skip most of that right to my summary. However, first I would like to touch briefly on the senate because my view on what is going on with it ties into a lot of what I'll be touching on in my summary.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"><b>The Senate</b></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">I started this post discussing my top issue: that we basically don't properly respect the way our parliament is supposed to work. Most people in this election are going to be voting for their "favourite&nbsp;party", or even worse their "favourite&nbsp;prime minister". <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/10/07/trudeau-tpp-_n_8257950.html">A recent clarification by Justin Trudeau on the T.P.P. demonstrates the issue clearly</a>:</span></span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau will not allow his MPs a free vote on the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Asked about it Wednesday morning, Trudeau was cautious with his answer.<br />"We're a long way from that," he told reporters.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"We have a very clear policy on free votes that says <b>elements that are in our platform, elements that go to the heart of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and elements that are confidence matters, that is, matters of budget, people would be expected to vote with the Liberal Party</b>," Trudeau went on to say.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"<b>On other issues, they would be expected to stand up for the interests of their constituents right across the country because that is what we elect people to do</b>."</span></blockquote><div>Trudeau's gift for double-speak never ceases to amaze me. No Trudeau, they're elected to represent their constituents on every single fucking issue. "That is what we elect people to do". Look at the issues he's left to be voted on in your interest dear constituent: "other issues". Like the Niqab? Abortion? All those other divisive 'people issues' I was talking about? But matters that regard your civil liberties? The charter of rights and freedoms? "matters of budget" aka economy and spending, <u style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">confidence matters</u>;&nbsp;these things will not be voted on in your interest rather they will be voted on with the interest and platform of the Liberal party in mind. And people wonder why our political system is fucked?</div><div><br /></div><div>Same thing goes for the senate, all the talk about the senate is on what is essentially considered "accomplishing the impossible" so that the corrupt individuals we put in there can't abuse their great power and freedom of the public purse. But is there any talk about maybe, you know, not appointing such corrupt useless partisan fuckwits to the Senate? How can we ever expect anything different regardless how "reformed" it is when we Canadians who are so eager to "get Harper out" are so fooled by this election? Most are so anxious to get rid of Harper they can't see that his replacements are simply replicas.</div><div><br /></div><div>'First past the post' isn't broken, the problem is we're not using it properly. The senate isn't broken either, it's that the actors you "trust" and vote in then appoint their crony friends to the Senate. That's not a problem with the design of how the Senate should work, it is a problem with our corrupt politicians. Likewise the problem with our politicians isn't our voting system it is that our voting system has been perverted in a faux presidential race that is easily manipulated by public relations teams that can make any politician look exactly how they want to the public. We can reform the various "political systems" all we want, but until we as Canadians reform our politics it will all be an exercise in futility.<br /><br />The senate should be reserved for distinguished Canadians, as it was meant to be, not washed up federal candidates or partisan hacks. Every appointment should be non-partisan with a clear defined reason. When I say distinguished Canadians I mean Canadians like Chris Hadfield. You know, the types of people like we used to honour with naming our public infrastructure after them before we started naming it after corporations.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Canadian Trends election summary</b><br /><b><br /></b><br />Now before I start on my summary I once again want to remind people my summary here isn't partisan, it's not meant to vouch for one party or another. I also want to say that despite what you read here these aspects I've described don't have to be true for each and every individual candidate. The problem with our political system is that Canadians will be voting in now 338 MPs largely based on the performance, and appearance of a single candidate: the party leader. Of course this isn't true across the board, there's the coveted "undecided" vote, and naturally many Canadians do base it on their MP but it can not be denied it is mostly influenced by the leaders of the major parties and "who people want to be Prime Minister".<br /><br />It suffocates the creativity that different ideas brought together can have to solve challenges and replaces that creativity with a sad partisan sports arena where people have teams and ideology and low-brow attacks rule all. Like, my God folks, the fucking Niqab? THIS IS WHAT IS DOMINATING OUR DISCUSSION? Dividing and conquering is how these people win.<br /><br />Anyway, lets get to it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ilcwr.org/sites/default/files/conservative.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ilcwr.org/sites/default/files/conservative.jpg" height="190" width="200" /></a><b>Conservative Party</b><br /><b><br /></b>The Conservative Party is a contender but I don't believe Stephen Harper really wants to win. I haven't talked about the Conservatives much in this post and that is for a reason which I will describe here shortly. I anticipate that should the Conservatives not win a majority Stephen Harper will resign his seat and exit politics and probably already has some cushy gig lined up.<br /><br />I believe this for several reasons:<br /><br />First, despite the Conservative's campaigning might they've run a substandard, despicable, and slightly odd campaign. In fact as far as I can tell much of the Conservative campaign has been designed to give Justin Trudeau support. I know, it's been a nasty campaign against him so let me explain.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Let's start with prior to the election. The Conservatives all year have been running 'attack ads' against Justin Trudeau. But Justin Trudeau was the leader of the third party. Yes he was popular but not enough to warrant a sustained campaign against him. Of course a sustained campaign has the interesting side effect of exposure. It gets people asking things like 'why is Harper so scared of Justin Trudeau?'. Etc, etc. Trudeau was in your face all year, not because of Trudeau, but because of Harper.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let's look at the Niqab: despite Harper's 'fear of Trudeau' Harper has chosen to spend the remaining portion of the election largely focusing on this pointless divisive debate. But it's interesting that this debate largely affects the NDP, not the Liberals. <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ndps-quebec-lead-evaporates-as-strategic-voters-turn-to-liberals-poll/article26728061/">The NDP is bleeding support which has brought the Liberals into first place</a>. Hmm, that's odd isn't it? Why would the Conservatives want to make the Liberals stronger, especially at a time they are already doing quite well at least if the polls are to be believed.</div><div><br /></div><div>During the first portion of the election Harper was largely aloof. Which was especially strange considering what a strong campaign against Trudeau he had launched all year. There were reports of him keeping only his closest advisers near and "mutiny" within the Conservative ranks. But again I have to point out the Conservatives have always shown a phenomenal ability to mold public perception. Money is no object in their campaigns and I find it hard to believe they were actually caught so off guard.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now that Harper has brought in his new Australian master advisor he's been doing other weird stuff like the Niqab, and using the saying 'old stock Canadians' during a debate. I mean, maybe it was just a slip of the tongue like Press for Truth shows in the introduction to this video:</div><div><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2RNB4Xw5lms" width="560"></iframe></div><br />Or, maybe it wasn't.<br /><br />The word in political circles is Harper is playing to his base, but he doesn't need to play to his base his base is going to vote for him no matter what. These issues that 'play to his base' also happen to push those who are not in his base, or are not the target (IE: Quebec), away from him.<br /><br />To my knowledge he hasn't yet once talked about getting a majority.<br /><br />There is one final piece of the puzzle regarding Harper's probable intentions: the number of ministers that have left him. Such as John Baird:</div></div><div align="center"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">LEAKED: Baird had secret meetings w/ Barrick Gold during Fahmy &amp; Gov't trip. Resigned 5 days later. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cdnpoli?src=hash">#cdnpoli</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/elxn42?src=hash">#elxn42</a> <a href="http://t.co/VwOd81BugS">pic.twitter.com/VwOd81BugS</a></div>— D. Matthew Millar (@dmatthewmillar) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmatthewmillar/status/641646533788569604">September 9, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>During their departures I noticed many progressives saying they are "fleeing the sinking ship" but what I don't think Canadians yet understand is Harper completed his voyage. The damage is done with his finale of selling Canada out to the TPP. Everyone is worried about Harper, I believe so strongly in this theory now that I'm not. As Kathleen Smith (<a href="https://twitter.com/KikkiPlanet">@kikkiplanet</a>) said 'this is his farewell tour'.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.liberal.ca/files/2010/06/L-logo-red.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://www.liberal.ca/files/2010/06/L-logo-red.png" width="200" /></a><b>Liberal Party</b><br /><b><br /></b>I believe the status-quo wants Justin Trudeau to become Prime Minister. He is a master actor, political royalty, bred from the ground up for this position. If you were a puppet master Trudeau would be the perfect puppet, he's Canada's Obama.<br /><br />You may have noticed throughout this post that I have focused on what it is Trudeau is saying, or not saying, or saying but not have you believing, whatever you want to call it. The purpose of this is to show you that Trudeau is just as invested in the status-quo as Harper is. There is no difference.<br /><br />Having Trudeau and the Liberals win is important to the status-quo, <a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/ParlInfo/Pages/PartyContributionBank.aspx">not just because the Liberals have always been in the pockets of the big banks</a>, but because Trudeau will be elected with a mandate to keep bills like C51 and just supposedly repair them. Remember back before C51 when the media was pushing the narrative that 'the vast majority of Canadians support bill C51'? As <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/02/anti-terror-art-of-misdirection-and.html">I attempted to show back then</a> it's not that Canadians discovered how bad the bill was, but rather it was that the 'vast support' didn't exist in the first place. They were manufacturing consent.<br /><br />But it didn't work. Trudeau came out supporting the bill and his support dropped off a cliff and the media has been building him up ever since. Manufacturing consent around bills like C51 is necessary because they can not really be used and abused without the public's consent. Push the people too far, or take too much for granted, and they may revolt. Having C51 on the books isn't good enough, the next incoming government must have a mandate to use it. Justin Trudeau <a href="https://www.liberal.ca/liberals-and-bill-c-51-up-front-with-canadians/">just happens to have such a mandate</a> and his meaningless "repairs" are simply whitewashing a dangerous bill.<br /><br />We've covered a lot about Trudeau this series so I'll leave you with this:<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RmZtjiHCY0s" width="560"></iframe></div><br /><a href="http://richardhughes.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/NDP-Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://richardhughes.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/NDP-Logo.jpg" /></a><b>New Democrat Party</b><br /><b><br /></b>The NDP are a bigger question mark in my mind. I don't trust Mulcair - like at all - particularly since he seems to have morals for hire. He seems like a plant to me, much like Ignatieff was to bring Harper his majority, and the NDP are running a weak campaign.<br /><br />However, on the flip side I don't believe the NDP are as thoroughly corrupted as the Conservative or Liberal parties and if you care about your civil liberties, or Canada's sovereignty, and actually hope your vote has some effect as to repealing or withdrawing from these types of activities then they are probably the best bet.<br /><br />I think Mulcair's economics, like all of their economics, are bullshit, but until Canadians address our exponential growth fiat monetary system the "economy" is going to suck so don't expect any changes on that front. Unlike my forecasts for Alberta's NDP I am not as confident the federal NDP will direct tax dollars where they need to go either in attempting to future proof Canada.<br /><br />Outside of that I don't have much to say about the NDP, they probably represent the closest thing to "real change".<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mhkH_LDJMoI" width="560"></iframe></div><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br /><b><br /></b>Soooooo.. ya. Slim pickens.<br /><br />But as I said, if we as Canadians reclaim our democracy and use our political system properly none of this shit matters. The leader is only as strong as those under him and I'll take a house filled with honourable people who will stand up for the interests of their constituents even if that fuckwit Trudeau says vote with the party over the partisan free for all we have now. That's what we need and we're really the only ones who can do that for us.<br /><br />So with all that in mind, I leave you with this question: Of the three videos shown above how many displayed an ad for Justin Trudeau (if you're Canadian), and how many for Harper, or Mulcair?<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qiKMmrG1ZKU" width="420"></iframe></div><br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UbACCGf6q-c" width="560"></iframe></div><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zejD0UkMGGY" width="560"></iframe></div><br />http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/10/elxn42-breakdown-part-4.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-4197488079706002523Fri, 02 Oct 2015 17:18:00 +00002015-10-02T11:57:46.886-06:00Another "conspiracy theory" proven true: government absolutely plants messaging in media<div class="tr_bq">In <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/tables-turn-in-syrian-war-effort.html">my last post</a> we started out reviewing a piece by James Howard Kunstler in which he stated the following:</div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Charlie Rose, 60-Minutes — and perhaps by extension US government agencies with an interest in propagandizing — seem to want to put over the story that Russia has involved itself in Syria only to aggrandize its role on in world affairs.</span></blockquote>Well it seems that may be a lot closer to the mark regarding the idiotic line of clearly pro-US narrative that Charlie Rose was asking Putin <a href="https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEmail_SeptemberWeb/O-2015-08630-146/DOC_0C05777985/C05777985.pdf">as a recently uncovered email regarding Hillary Clinton's on-going scandal shows</a>.<br /><br />The contents of the email are shown here:<br /><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">From: Crowley, Philip J&nbsp;<crowleyr1 state.gov="">Sent:</crowleyr1><crowleyr1 state.gov="">Friday, January 28, 2011 8:08 PM&nbsp;</crowleyr1><crowleyr1 state.gov="">To: Cc: Mills, Cheryl D; Sullivan, Jacob J; Koh, Harold Hongju; Mull, Stephen D; Reines, Philippe I; McHale, Judith A; Verma, Richard R; Goldberg, Philip S; Abedin, Huma; Steinberg, James B; Nides, Thomas R; Burns, William J</crowleyr1></span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><crowleyr1 state.gov="">Subject: 60 Minutes Sunday</crowleyr1>&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><crowleyr1 state.gov="">Madame Secretary,</crowleyr1>&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><crowleyr1 state.gov="">a very quick update. I just received confirmation from 60 Minutes that a piece on Julian Assange will air Sunday night. He will be the only person featured. <b>We had made a number of suggestions for outside experts and former diplomats to interview to "balance" the piece.</b> 60 Minutes assures me that they raised a number of <b>questions and concerns we planted with them</b> during the course of the interview. <b>We will be prepared to respond to the narrative Assange presents during the program.</b></crowleyr1><b>&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><crowleyr1 state.gov="">PJ</crowleyr1><crowleyr1 state.gov=""><br /></crowleyr1><crowleyr1 state.gov="">SBU</crowleyr1></span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><crowleyr1 state.gov="">This email is UNCLASSIFIED.</crowleyr1></span></blockquote>Ahh, there is nothing like government "balance" planted in a news story eh? Keep this in mind the next time you see reporters using the exact same phrases on every channel to describe an event as 'The Daily Show' was so good at highlighting (yet also overlooking how incredibly odd it was that it happened <u style="font-weight: bold;">all the time</u>).<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xi4MZ2XLDNE" width="560"></iframe></div><br />http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/10/another-conspiracy-theory-proven-true.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-6095222146496643054Wed, 30 Sep 2015 04:14:00 +00002015-10-02T11:07:46.778-06:00UPDATE-2: Tables turn in Syrian war effort<div class="tr_bq">With the more prominent Russian presence in the war the tables have turned for the U.S. narrative so I'm going to be taking a break from my #elxn42 breakdown series to refocus on the war in Syria as it's now at a pivotal point.</div><br />Recently <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/president-putin-part-one/">60 Minutes did an interview with Putin</a> which I would really encourage you to watch. Putin is succinct and clear with his answers despite 60 Minutes' obviously pointed questions. Of course Russia is "up to something", we're all "up to something" in this region with everyone using humanitarianism and ISIS as a cover. But the Russian strategy (which we will be discussing throughout this post) is quite clever.<br /><br />First I'd like to review a bit of commentary by James Howard Kunstler over at <a href="http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/tick-tick-tick/">Clusterfucknation</a> on this interview (though again you really should read the entire thing it's - I think anyway - hilarious)<br /><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">This bit on Ukraine was only a little more appalling than Charlie’s earlier segment on Syria. Was Putin trying to rescue the Assad government? Charlie asked, in the context of President Obama’s statement years ago that “Assad has to go.”&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Putin answered as if he were explaining something that should have been self-evident to a not-very-bright high school freshman: “To remove the legitimate government would create a situation which you can witness in other countries of the region, for instance Libya, where all the state institutions have disintegrated. We see a similar situation in Iraq. There’s no other solution to the Syrian crisis than strengthening the government structure.”&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">I guess Charlie and the 60-Minutes production crew hadn’t noticed what had gone on around the Middle East the past fifteen years with America’s program of toppling dictators into the maw of anarchy. Not such great outcomes.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Charlie persisted though, following his script: Was Putin trying to rescue Assad? Vlad had to lay it out for him as if he were introducing Charlie to the game of Animal Lotto: “What do you think about those who support the terrorist organizations only to oust Assad without thinking about what happens to the country after all the state institutions have been demolished…? Look at those who are in control of 60 percent of the territory of Syria.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Meaning ISIS. Al Nusra (formerly al Qaeda in Syria), i.e., groups internationally recognized as terrorist organizations.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Charlie Rose, 60-Minutes — and perhaps by extension US government agencies with an interest in propagandizing — <b>seem to want to put over the story that Russia has involved itself in Syria only to aggrandize its role on in world affairs.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Forgive me for being so blunt, but what sort of stupid fucking idea is this? And are there any non-lobotomized adults left in the USA who can’t see straight through it? The truth is that American policy in Syria (plus Iraq, Libya, Ukraine, Somalia, Afghanistan) is an impressive record of failure in terms of the one basic aim that most rational people might agree upon: stabilizing the region in a way that does not leave Islamic jihadi maniacs in charge.</span></blockquote><b>Why now? What are the Russians really up to?</b><br /><br />A big question on everyone's minds seems to be. Why now? What are the Russians really up to? As Kunstler rightly notes the official narrative so far has more or less been that they are "Russia has involved itself in Syria only to aggrandize its role on in world affairs". Of course they're there to fortify Assad and prevent what I must remind you is the sovereign government of Syria from being overrun by U.S. empire backed terrorists. But based on their actions there is clearly a lot more to it than that.<br /><br />It's of course suspected (obvious really) that should the official U.S. 'moderate' rebels attack the SAA they will be fair game but they are also taking this opportunity to reinforce the Syrian government against NATO itself.<br /><br />September 22nd: <a href="http://time.com/4043955/russia-syria-latakia-28-aircraft-assad-isis/">Russia Has Added Dozens of Aircraft to Its Growing Military Presence in Syria: Reports</a><br /><br />Here's an interesting excerpt:<br /><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Vladimir Putin has reportedly added drones, attack helicopters and aircraft to its force in Syria in recent weeks.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Russia rapidly increased its aerial attack capabilities in Syria over the weekend,</b> U.S. officials told Agence France-Presse on Monday, including <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/russia-deployed-28-combat-aircraft-syria-us-officials-173419582.html">28 combat planes</a> that have been sighted at a new Russian air base in the Syrian province of Latakia.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The fleet includes 12 SU-24 attack aircraft, 12 SU-25 ground attack aircraft and four Flanker fighter jets, the officials told the news agency on condition of anonymity. An influx of new weaponry was also reported separately by the New York Times and <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/21/politics/russia-flies-drones-over-syria/">CNN</a>.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">One of the officials told AFP of the additional presence of around 20 combat helicopters and said Russian forces are flying surveillance drones over the Middle Eastern nation’s airspace.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">According to the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/world/middleeast/russia-deploys-ground-attack-aircraft-to-syrian-base.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=0">Times</a>, Russia’s military presence in Syria also includes <b>at least three surface-to-air missiles</b>, nine tanks and around 500 marines.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>“The equipment and personnel just keep flowing in,” another official told the Times. “They were very busy over the weekend.”</b></span></blockquote>So why recent weeks? Let's take a look at some of the headlines &nbsp;from 'recent weeks'.<br /><br />On September 18th <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/18/opinion/a-no-fly-zone-in-syria.html?_r=0">a&nbsp;"special representative to the United States and the United Nations for the Syrian National Coalition." wrote an op-ed in the New York Times calling for a No-Fly Zone</a>.<br /><br />On August 28th in the Globe &amp; Mail:&nbsp;"<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-time-for-a-no-fly-zone-over-syria-has-arrived/article26097482/">The time for a ‘no-fly zone’ over Syria has arrived</a>"<br /><br />Yesterday, September 28th&nbsp;"<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/28/kevin-mccarthy-calls-no-fly-zone-over-syria/">Kevin McCarthy calls for no-fly zone over Syria</a>"<br /><br />Calls for a no-fly zone in mainstream media have been all over the place again suddenly and maybe this is why <a href="http://time.com/3974060/turkey-syria-no-fly-zone/">as back in July</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The U.S. flew “no-fly zones” over northern and southern Iraq for more than a decade before the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. U.S. warplanes kept Iraqi aircraft out of the sky, and targeted Iraqi air-defense systems that threatened to shoot. Now, along with neighboring Turkey,<b> the U.S. is planning to launch something similar over a stretch of northern Syria.</b></span></blockquote><br /><a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-07-28/u-s-shoots-down-idea-of-syria-safe-zone">Now of course the other hand of the U.S. immediately "shot down" this idea</a>&nbsp;but you'd have to be an idiot to actually believe it's not being considered and I don't think Putin is an idiot, do you?<br /><br />I read <a href="http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.ca/2015/09/russia-building-a2ad-bubble-over.html">a great blog post on the type of system Putin is deploying which I really suggest you check out</a>.<br /><br /><b>Utilizing the court of public opinion</b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sott.net/image/s13/269752/medium/ISIS_Syria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.sott.net/image/s13/269752/medium/ISIS_Syria.jpg" /></a></div><b><br /></b>In <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/elxn42-breakdown-part-2.html">part 2 of my series on the Canadian federal election</a> we took a trip down memory lane on some of the events that lead to the Syrian 'civil' war. Since the Russian build up the western narrative on Syria has changed significantly almost overnight. Russia<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/27/middleeast/iraq-russia-iran-syria-intelligence-deal/index.html"> is forming it's own coalition to fight ISIS</a> - and it is legal and operating within Syria at the invitation of the Syrian government. As the Financial Times noted "<a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c26af216-6465-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html#axzz3nBdvTTSy">this puts the U.S. on the back foot</a>".<br /><br />If you'll recall from part 2 of my series on the Canadian election, prior to John Kerry failing to convince the world of the urgent need to bomb the Syrian government there was no ISIS narrative in the news, it was all "rebels" with sprinkles of al-Qaeda. The al-Qaeda participation was downplayed and frankly I don't think the public was ever supposed to know about their participation. Syria was supposed to go down like Libya where hardly any of the population was aware of the fact the rebels were actually mostly terrorists.<br /><br />If you remember the media atmosphere back then it was largely the public's recent awareness to the presence of al-Qaeda within the rebels that made it so difficult for the United States to get a coalition and public mandate to bomb the Syrian government. There was too much doubt about the still dubious 'chemical weapons' which were presented to strengthen the argument given the presence of al-Qaeda. <u><i><b>It was only following Kerry's failure to bomb Assad that the media latched onto the phrase ISIS.</b></i></u><br /><u><i><b><br /></b></i></u>The necessity of the change in focus and narrative can not be understated. The United States can not invoke the 'War on Terror' to attack a sovereign state. They need a reason, they need public support. They tried to get it, and failed. However, the 'War on Terror' allows them to attack terrorists anywhere in the world regardless of borders. They got their bombing of Syria, and they got it by instead of hiding the presence of al-Qaeda - and their atrocities as "the rebels" - moving to a strategy that highlighted them. The heinous acts of ISIS coupled with some <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zkVfDHmMWA">likely propaganda</a> aided by intelligence for media purposes were finally enough to gain support for limited military action in Iraq and Syria.<br /><br />The narrative changed and in what seemed almost overnight there wasn't just a few terrorist fighters, there were tons, and now they terrorize 60% of Syria. It really is a testament to the awesome power of manipulation that exists within the military industrial complex.<br /><br />This narrative has a weakness however, and now for the second time Russia has seized on the weakness in the U.S. narrative to deny them what they want. The first time in 2013 when Kerry occidentally provided a direct path for Russia to follow that would thwart the U.S. attack that the U.S. had to honour to save face and now this time by using their "ineffective" war against ISIS as the same pretext for their fortification of the Syrian state which much like the U.S. being able to strike the Syrian government directly would raise suspicion if not for the convenient excuse of ISIS. Russia is beating the U.S. at it's own game of public relations.<br /><br />The rhetoric now has greatly changed because the U.S. is trapped in their own ISIS narrative. The hopes for a no-fly zone necessary in the NATO strategy for regime change is now extremely unlikely to occur without a direct confrontation with Russian hardware. The cover for the 'moderate' rebels (which if you remember from part 2 of my series on the Canadian election Joe Biden said "there are no moderate rebels") is now useless as Russia is within every legal right internationally to aid Syria.<br /><br />Russia is playing the situation by the book, using the same humanitarian crisis excuse that the U.S. has been using to enter Syria to begin a real fight against ISIS which the U.S. and it's coalition has not truly been doing. They have been working to contain ISIS and force Assad from power for their benefit causing untold grief on the people of Syria for as long as Syria doesn't play ball. The U.S. has repeatedly warned that Russia's entry into the war will prolong the war but the conflated reasoning for this is simple: the western proxy will not stop fighting until the U.S. and it's allies get what they want.<br /><br />In response to the Russian fortification now <a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-foreign-minister-assad-must-go-or-face-military-option-164311177#sthash.oX5dhUNa.uxfs&amp;st_refDomain=t.co&amp;st_refQuery=/Ha2ZsjegrE">Saudi Arabia has warned that they may get directly involved in the conflict against the Syrian government</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/316705-china-syria-isis-fight/">there are rumours of Chinese involvement</a>&nbsp;in defence of the Syrian government too.<br /><br />Things are definitely heating up and it seems the U.S. is quickly losing control both of <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/its-time-to-rethink-syria-213184">it's humanitarian shield narrative</a>, and it's allies.<br /><br /><b>Update-1</b><br /><b><br /></b><a href="http://www.rt.com/news/317013-parliament-authorization-troops-abroad/">Russian parliament green lights use of troops in Syria</a><br /><br /><b>Update-2</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/u-s-doubts-russia-targeting-islamic-state-positions-in-syria-1.2587726">U.S. doubts Russia targeting Islamic State positions in Syria</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">President Vladimir Putin sought to portray the airstrikes as a pre-emptive attack against the Islamic militants who have taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq. Russia estimates at least 2,400 of its own citizens are already fighting alongside extremists in Syria and Iraq.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>"If they (militants) succeed in Syria, they will return to their home country, and they will come to Russia, too," Putin said in a televised speech at a government session.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The U.S. and Russia both agree on the need to fight Islamic State, but are in dispute about what to do about Syrian President Bashar Assad's government. At the U.N. General Assembly, President Barack Obama said the U.S. and Russia could work together on a political transition, but only if Assad leaving power was the result. Putin is Assad's most powerful backer.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The Russian airstrikes targeted positions, vehicles and warehouses that Moscow believes belong to IS militants, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">A senior U.S. official, however, said the airstrikes don't appear to be targeting IS, because the militants aren't in the western part of the country, beyond Homs, where the strikes were directed.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">It appears the strikes were directed against opposition groups fighting against Assad, according to the official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the Russian airstrikes publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Syrian state television quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Russian warplanes have targeted IS positions in central Syria, including the areas of Rastan and Talbiseh, and areas near the town of Salamiyeh in Hama province.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">IS controls parts of Homs province, including the historic town of Palmyra. Homs also has positions run by al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, known as the Nusra Front. Both groups have fighters from the former Soviet Union including Chechens.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Genevieve Casagrande of the Institute of the Study of War, using an alternative acronym for Islamic State, said the airstrike on Talbisah, "did not hit ISIS militants and rather resulted in a large number of civilian casualties."&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"If confirmed, the airstrike would signal Russian intent to assist in the Syrian regime's war effort at large, rather than securing the regime's coastal heartland of Latakia and Tartous," she said.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that a Russian official in Baghdad informed U.S. Embassy personnel that Russian military aircraft would shortly begin flying anti-IS missions over Syria. The Russian official also asked that U.S. aircraft avoid Syrian airspace during those missions Wednesday. Kirby didn't say whether the U.S. agreed to that request.</span></blockquote>This reminds me of a cryptic warning given by Zbigniew Brzezinski to Russia on the anniversary of September the 11th:<br /><br /><div align="center"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Given its 20 million Muslims, Russia, acting alone, is making a grievous mistake by assuming domestic immunity from the MidEast conflict.</div>— Zbigniew Brzezinski (@zbig) <a href="https://twitter.com/zbig/status/642397808004345856">September 11, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Seems like Russia's response is: challenge accepted.http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/tables-turn-in-syrian-war-effort.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-3036179403498670538Sat, 26 Sep 2015 20:57:00 +00002015-09-26T15:13:11.377-06:00#elxn42 breakdown - Part 3In <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/elxn42-breakdown-part-1.html">part 1 of this post</a> we focused on the need for exponential growth and the monetary system behind our need for this type of growth. We learned that the monetary system in it's current form is a textbook definition of a Ponzi-scheme requiring ever growing production to meet ever growing debt at the top because at any given time there is always more total debt with interest than there is actual currency to pay for it and the only way to conjure up the currency needed to pay outstanding debt is to borrow even more currency resulting in a never ending cycle where the debt load and subsequent "growth" required are perfectly exponential.<br /><br />In <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/elxn42-breakdown-part-2.html">part 2 of this post</a> we looked at the resource wars currently going on with a focus on <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/may/13/1?CMP=share_btn_tw">it's relation to peak oil and pipelines</a>. The 14 year 'war on terror' has really been a resource war for the U.S. empire to position itself as the first and last global empire that is to be succeeded by corporations as we learned in Michael C. Ruppert's presentation.<br /><br />In this part we're going to look at the T.P.P. and free trade and how the process of succession towards corporate governance has already begun under the auspices of 'trade'. We will take a quick look at the party positions on trade and how those positions tie into assertions already made.<br /><br />Just a note before we begin: I realize this is now part 3 and I've said very little about the election itself. What I am providing is the background information you require to understand why I believe what I do regarding the election and the parties involved so that when we finally arrive at my summary of my position on the various parties you'll understand what it is I'm talking about.<br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"><b>T.P.P. and Free Trade</b></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>[...] many of America’s leaders actually accept that there is an unelected, unappointed, and unaccountable presence within the system that actually manages what is taking place behind the scenes. That would be the American deep state.</i><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Philip Giraldi<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"></span></div></blockquote>Recently <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/deep-state-america/">the New York Times (of all places) published an article</a> about a paper written by former CIA officer Philip Giraldi about the American deep state. Of course readers of this post already know all about it as it is the very same deep state Michael C. Ruppert describes in his presentation. An interconnected deep state of revolving doors around Wall Street, Washington, intelligence, media and the military industrial complex. It is within this deep state that the continuity of government is possible and it exists here in Canada, too.<br /><br />In the last post <a href="https://twitter.com/LeslieCBC/status/644633073263382529">I linked to a tweet containing a video where the CBC discusses on air the "brutal reality" of the civilian casualties that will happen to fight ISIS and then goes on to talk about how we have to remove Assad</a> (you know, for killing civilians in his true fight against ISIS which western media continues to call a "civil war" even though it's clear it's anything but). The "Assad is bad" narrative <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/russian-visitors-receive-warm-welcome-coastal-syria-102147094.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory&amp;soc_trk=tw">makes less and less sense every day</a> yet our media sticks to it. This is the official narrative; this is war propaganda and the deep state at work.<br /><br />It's important to understand how deep the complicity of media goes within our own country to understand that this extends to discussions of free trade (or the lack there of). In the media these are referred simply to "trade deals" but they are really about far more than trade. They subvert national sovereignty and hand it over to unelected, unaccountable international panels that bend to corporate whim. Piece by piece each additional trade deal removes the ability for the people of a country to make democratic decisions about the type of business conducted in their country.<br /><br />These deliberations are kept secret and rarely if ever reported on even though the result of them is almost always a democratic law being overturned or <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/canada-loses-nafta-battle-to-exxon/article4224936/">taxpayers paying fines to corporations</a> for all sorts of reasons which the corporation claims impedes their business. On the flip side <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/01/silly-citizens-naftas-are-for.html">attempts by democracies to utilize the rules to hold these very same corporations accountable</a> are in every case I've ever found thrown out.<br /><br />'Trade' is the mechanism being used by corporations to subvert democratic governments in secret of willing participants of the U.S. empire because it hides the process from the citizenry. Trade is a weakness in our democratic process in that traditionally trade deals are allowed to be conducted in secret thus the details of which are not apparent to the citizens of the nations until the deal is already signed. Rather all we get are vague details from leaked drafts of the deal or <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harper-says-auto-industry-wont-like-everything-in-pacific-trade-deal/article26418415/">statements from those who are involved</a>.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>What I say to the auto sector in particular, <b>I’m not suggesting they will necessarily like everything that is in that</b>, but what I am saying is we simply cannot afford as a country to have our auto sector shut out of global supply chains. That would be a disaster.<br />We’re going to make sure we get the best deal for that and all of our sectors, <b>but we are committed as a government to making sure we do not fall behind in our access to a global trading economy which is so integrated</b>. If we do that, that would be disastrous for this country.</i><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Stephen Harper</div></blockquote>Yes, it is "so integrated" largely due to the actions of those now making it more integrated. The secrecy surrounding these 'trade' deals ensures that no real discussion can ever really take place as any real concerns that come to light can easily be swept away with generic statements like&nbsp;"but what I am saying is we simply cannot afford as a country to have our auto sector shut out of global supply chains". The secrecy and deliberate confusion that is sewn provides the framing of all those against 'free trade' as against the concept of 'trade' itself when the truth is that those of us against 'free trade' are against it for all of the reasons besides actual trade that come with these deals. Wrapping the subversion of democracy in the cloak of trade is what is really going on.<br /><br />You'll remember in part 1 of this series that we took a brief look at Justin Trudeau's pro free trade op-ed in which he asked the "vexing question" where the next wave of growth will come from. Politicians complicit &nbsp;in this agenda aren't lying when they talk about the growth 'free trade' will bring, the part they're not telling you however and as Trudeau pointed out is that the "middle class" will not be benefiting by the "growth created by trade". This growth will go purely to the top end of the international corporations subverting the democratic process for profits and control and to keep the economic ponzi-scheme operating.<br /><br />If the resource wars are how the U.S. empire's deep state aims to maintain dominance in the world among non-voluntary state actors it is free trade, along with the central banking ponzi-scheme and credit markets, which is the mechanism of accomplishing the same thing among voluntary state actors. Their implications run far beyond simple trade and aim to incrementally move more and more control of the types of business and rules for business away from national and democratic control towards international technocratic control where the clear and only beneficiaries are international corporations that have no national home.<br /><br />This web of secret trade regulation is tying the hands of governments and their ability to act in favour of their people while fear-mongering about jobs and "economic growth" is used to convince populations to accept these deals but the economic growth they will bring will be for international corporations and their top echelon at the expense of the world population's standard of living. As we covered in part 1 hidden in Trudeau's news speak was admittance that the "middle class" never benefited from trade (in which he means 'free trade') but what he fails to mention is this was by design. Trudeau mentions how 'trade' (meaning 'free trade') has brought immense wealth but never says who received this wealth, of course indirectly admitting it certainly wasn't the middle class, or the lower class, so it must be the highest class. This is also by design.<br /><br />This same design of stealing wealth and control is what is driving 'free trade' today and those parties who support it aim to fool you that being against 'free trade' is to be against 'trade'. This is a deliberate, malicious, lie meant to confuse and convince Canadians that giving up national sovereignty and the ability to decide what business can and can not do on Canadians soil will somehow translate into immense wealth and economic growth. As Stephen Harper once said "there isn't really a Canadian economy any more, it is a global economy" and "I know some people might not like it, it's a loss of national sovereignty but it's a simple reality that were in a global economy".<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oVctL20CcP8" width="560"></iframe></div><br />Of course what those in power omit from telling you is that this "global economy" which results in a loss of national sovereignty was designed by those operating it to do exactly that and they also omit that those who are operating it are not elected, accountable, or democratic. It is nothing short of a global economic dictatorship being operated and asserted by the American Deep State.<br /><br /><i>In part 4 of this post we will look at governmental issues and how they tie into what has already been covered here and then I will provide my final summary of the political landscape.</i>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/elxn42-breakdown-part-3.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-653669825044425968Sat, 19 Sep 2015 03:43:00 +00002015-09-18T23:00:11.442-06:00#elxn42 breakdown - Part 2In <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/elxn42-breakdown-part-1.html">part 1 of this post</a> we focused on the need for exponential growth and the monetary system behind our need for this type of growth. We learned that the monetary system in it's current form is a textbook definition of a Ponzi-scheme requiring ever growing production to meet ever growing debt at the top because at any given time there is always more total debt with interest than there is actual currency to pay for it and the only way to conjure up the currency needed to pay outstanding debt is to borrow even more currency resulting in a never ending cycle where the debt load and subsequent "growth" required are perfectly exponential.<br /><br />We identified 4 interconnected domestic issues and discussed how the need for exponential growth is the primary driver behind them and also the solutions that are framed for you by the major political parties to address them which can be summed up as "we need more growth".<br /><br />In this portion we will be looking at 'the resource wars' only as the topic is very very large and must be explained in full for you to really grasp what is happening here.<br /><br />Before we get into these issues though I just wanted to amend the 'First Nations' portion from the last post as some additional material was provided by Justin Trudeau in last night's debate, or rather, following it.<br /><br /><!--<div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XbnMz7tsXjo?t=3h3m13s" width="560"></iframe></div>--> <i><b><u>(Update: it seems the G&amp;M has removed the post-debate portion while i was writing the post from the video! I am trying to locate another. If anyone has a link to Trudeau's Q&amp;A post-debate please let me know in the comments.)</u></b></i><br /><br />Now I've set the embedding of this video to start at 3h03s but if it doesn't work for you skip forward to this time. Observe what Justin Trudeau's answer is to the question:<br /><br /><i>"Near the end you mentioned First Nations hadn't been a part of the debate at all why didn't you bring it up earlier?"</i><br /><br />And his response:<br /><br /><i>"Ah, you know, there was an awful lot of topics covered and &nbsp;in a very short period of time. Uh, and I kept <b style="text-decoration: underline;">hoping</b>&nbsp;that it would be brought up but I think it's important to highlight uh that that fact is uh that <b>First Nations have the largest proportion of young people in this country</b> and the future of those communities are <b>also about the future of our country</b>; <u><b>needing to get our resources to market</b></u>, <b>needing to develop our resources needs to happen in partnership on a nation to nation basis with First Nations and that's exactly what the Liberal Party is committed to do and I was glad to be able to highlight that in the debate</b> which talked of many aspects of our economy but didn't speak enough about the <b>opportunities and the challenges faced by indigenous Canadians.</b>"</i><br /><i><br /></i>So apparently the only issue and challenge facing First Nations is that the government needs to get resources to market. Sounds a lot more like the issue the government is having <i><b><u>with</u></b></i> First Nations to me, not the issues and challenges that they are facing. Also note how he says 'in partnership on a Nation to Nation basis' but at the end slips up calling them 'Canadians'. First Nations are not Canadians, <u><b>they are Nations we have a treaty with</b></u>. You can't both partner with other Nations, and assimilate those Nations. I know it may seem like a minor language screw up, and perhaps it was, but when you review his answer where the clear focus has nothing to do with the issues actually facing First Nations (other than those created for them by the government itself, of course) it may be a Freudian slip.<br /><br />Alright. Let's resume the original post.<br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"><b>The Resource Wars (or for the uninformed: 'The Syrian Refugee Crisis')</b></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">Julian Assange revealed in an exclusive with RT that <a href="http://www.rt.com/news/314852-assange-wikileaks-us-syria/">the overthrow of Assad was planned as early as 2006</a>&nbsp;during the Bush/Cheney years. Much like the continuity of our government despite parties, this is also the way it operates in the U.S. The direction and agenda set during the Bush years following 9/11 are still the driving force at work today. The war happening in Syria is a continuation of the war NATO has been engaging in for the last 14 years.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;">Beginning in 2008 a new narrative had been formed around al-Qaeda, that it's "capacities had been greatly diminished". The focus in the media moved away from al-Qaeda and towards the&nbsp;inevitable&nbsp;withdrawing of NATO troops that was to occur.</span></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px;"><br /></span></span></span><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125469118585462615">WSJ: Al Qaeda's Diminished Role Stirs Afghan Troop Debate [2009]</a><br /><div><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/06/cronin.al.qaeda/index.html?iref=24hours">CNN: Commentary: Al Qaeda's support is fading [2009]</a></div><div><br /></div><div>and January 2008:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2008/01/al_qaeda_in_iraqs_sh.php">Al Qaeda in Iraq’s shrinking area of operations</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Go back in to the news archives and you can find numerous articles. The public was quickly losing it's patience with the 'War on Terror' and something had to be done especially with the 'up and coming' and 'currently happening' financial crisis. So NATO ended the war, and that more or less culminated with the "killing of Osama Bin Laden" in which Obama promptly tossed the dead body out to sea. The al-Qaeda narrative was dead. They were now to be nothing more than a diminished group of has-beens from our point of view, a new strategy was needed one which re-invigorated the public's support for unilateral war.</div><div><br /></div><div>Luckily for us the Arab Revolution came along (which if you'll remember from the presentation on the monetary system by Mike Maloney that Max Keiser mentions how it was Federal Reserve interest rates which sparked food inflation) and we had the perfect inroad to resume the war.</div><div><br /></div><div>al-Qaeda was to be reborn, but not as al-Qaeda, but ISIS. A new entity which is really just al-Qaeda renamed. So, in 2011 we aided the Libyan's revolution. You all remember that right? We materially funded the "Libyan rebels". Now, some of you may recall from the first debate Elizabeth May making a remark about us supporting the rebels who were infiltrated by al-Qaeda.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2011 the citizens of NATO countries were not supposed to know that they were really just aiding al-Qaeda, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8407047/Libyan-rebel-commander-admits-his-fighters-have-al-Qaeda-links.html">though a few reports came out...</a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, <b>Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited "around 25" men from the Derna area in eastern <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/">Libya</a> to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are "today are on the front lines in Adjabiya".</b><br /><br />Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters "are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists," but added that the "<b>members of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/">al-Qaeda</a> are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader".</b><br /><br />His revelations came even as Idriss Deby Itno, Chad's president, said <b>al-Qaeda had managed to pillage military arsenals in the Libyan rebel zone and acquired arms, "including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries".<br /><br />Mr al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against "the foreign invasion" in <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/">Afghanistan</a>, before being "captured in 2002 in Peshwar, in<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/">Pakistan</a>". He was later handed over to the US, and then held in Libya before being released in 2008.<br /><br />US and British government sources said Mr al-Hasidi was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which killed dozens of Libyan troops in guerrilla attacks around Derna and Benghazi in 1995 and 1996.</b></span></blockquote>2011. This was also when the Syrian revolt began.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2012/08/cfr-syrian-rebels-would-be-immeasurably.html">In 2012 I caught eye of an article put out by the Council on Foreign Relations</a> which contains the following:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Al-Qaeda is not sacrificing its "martyrs" in Syria merely to overthrow Assad</b>. Liberation of the Syrian people is a bonus, but <b>the main aim is to create an Islamist state in all or part of the country</b>. Failing that, they hope to at least establish a strategic base for the organization's remnants across the border in Iraq, and create a regional headquarters where mujahideen can enjoy a safe haven. <b>If al-Qaeda continues to play an increasingly important role in the rebellion, then a post-Assad government will be indebted to the tribes and regions allied to the Jabhat. Failing to honor the Jabhat's future requests, assuming Assad falls, could see a continuation of conflict in Syria.</b></span><b>&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Thus far, <b>Washington seems reluctant to weigh heavily into this issue</b>. In May 2012, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta publicly accepted <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/may/11/al-qaida-syria-leon-panetta-video">al-Qaeda's presence in Syria (Guardian)</a>. And in July, the State Department's counterterrorism chief, Daniel Benjamin, rather incredulously suggested that the United States will simply ask the <a href="http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/rm/2012/195898.htm">FSA to reject al-Qaeda</a>. <b>The unspoken political calculation among policymakers is to get rid of Assad first—weakening Iran's position in the region—and then deal with al-Qaeda later.</b></span></blockquote>Hmm. Starting to see a recurring pattern here? How did ISIS become so powerful, so quickly? Especially when "al-Qaeda" was practically defeated? I'll let Joe Biden tell you:<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w04YE5zRmc8" width="560"></iframe></div><br />2012.<br /><br />In 2013 John Kerry tried to convince the world that to stop the suffering of the Syrian people from chemical weapons we had to bomb the Assad government&nbsp;<a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2013/09/kerry-accidently-talks-us-out-of-war.html">but during the Q&amp;A was caught off guard by a reporters question</a>. Russia, who knows exactly what the U.S. is up to (which we will get to in a moment) instantly seized on this opportunity preventing NATO from bombing Syria and overthrowing Assad. Remember that when this was occurring there was never any talk of ISIS, despite the fact that it was clear the U.S. government knew that al-Qaeda intended to create an Islamic State for at least a full year and probably longer ('cause you know... they set the whole thing in motion) yet Kerry was insistent about Assad. Had NATO bombed Syria the entire region would be overrun with al-Qaeda. Kerry fucked up because that's exactly what they wanted.<br /><br />Following this the narrative of ISIS was born.<br /><br />Have you ever played Roller Coaster Tycoon? Did you know when one of your roller coasters blows up rather than changing or repairing it you can simply rename it and the people in your park will literally think it's a different roller coaster? It's a really neat trick to get the money rolling in again without having to actually create something new. Slowly the narrative has shifted since 2013 away from al-Qaeda and towards ISIS to the point that many people actually believe they are two different things. They're not. They need to be different in the public's eye because the al-Qaeda narrative was killed. This is the next phase of the war Dick Cheney told us "would not end in our lifetime".<br /><br />Now would be a good time to show you another presentation I actually posted just recently as he provides much of the background you're going to need to understand in the context of the geopolitical environment we now exist in. I know I'm providing a lot of material and that it literally takes hours to go through all of it, but these are complex topics and without the background much of what is going on today is not going to make a lot of sense.<br /><br />In this next presentation Michael C. Ruppert discusses many topics all revolving around the things we've been talking about and describes the (then) coming wars.<br /><br />Pay special note and listen for some of the current day topics and hot spots such as: <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-quietly-loosens-limits-on-assault-weapon-exports-to-colombia/article6861525/">Columbia</a>, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/venezuela-opposition-leader-leopoldo-lopez-sentenced-13-years-150911023753425.html">Venezuela</a>, West Africa, and North Korea. Also note the endgame(s): Russia, and China. Particularly the maps showing how the U.S. is trying to keep Russia out of the region keeping in mind <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-03/flashpoint-white-house-confirms-russian-presence-syria-warns-it-destabilizing">that for instance in response to Russia aiding their ally and the sovereign government of Syria's Assad "in the fight against ISIS" they will be destabilizing the region</a>. Here is this presentation.<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_uU6U7H7Aws" width="420"></iframe></div>I hope you're starting now to see what is going on here. So what else has happened in this conflict? Canada's bud Israel isn't taking in a single refugee, <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.675475">not one</a>. But we're not hearing much about that are we? It might be because along with Dick Cheney's Haliburton (remember them from the presentation?) <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Environment/Drilling-begins-at-third-Golan-Heights-oil-exploration-site-413239">they've been drilling for oil in the illegally occupied Golan</a> which <a href="http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/11392453.asp?scr=1">just prior to the Syrian civilian war they had been feuding over</a>.<br /><br />There <a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/migrant-crisis-syria-war-fueled-by-competing-gas-pipelines/209294/">are also competing gas pipelines</a> and a multitude of other reasons why NATO wants Assad out. But as was revealed recently, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/15/west-ignored-russian-offer-in-2012-to-have-syrias-assad-step-aside">it's not really about Assad</a>. Here is the telling paragraph:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“The weakest point is Ahtisaari’s claim that Churkin was speaking with Moscow’s authority. I think if he had told me what Churkin had said, I would have replied I wanted to hear it from [President Vladimir] Putin too before I could take it seriously. <b>And even then I’d have wanted to be sure it wasn’t a Putin trick to draw us in to a process that ultimately preserved Assad’s state under a different leader but with the same outcome.”</b></span></blockquote>That "ultimately preserved Assad's state under a different leader but with the same outcome". The "same outcome" of course being a government that isn't a NATO puppet.<br /><br />These refugees aren't just "kind of" our fault. They are 100% our fault. Of course Assad has bombed some civilians, he has been claiming the entire time that his army has been fighting foreign terrorists and defending his country from them. It is our media, and our government, that lied to us and said he is mass murdering his "own people". They weren't his own people they were the terrorists that were to become ISIS. Terrorists we supported, trained, funded, aided, and let loose on the Syrian people. When it comes to the "refugees" Elizabeth May has been the only one that has been brave enough to at least try to touch on this fact. The other 3 leaders are lying to you. If you want to help the Syrian refugees then please listen to Syrian Girl's story and pester our politicians on NATOs true involvement, this entire plan rests on us believing we're "fighting ISIS" and not actually helping them overthrow the Syrian government.<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pHFnvFbThDE" width="560"></iframe></div><br />Contrary to popular rhetoric NATO is not "helping Assad". But we should be if we were actually honest and serious both about fighting ISIS and defending Syrian lives. We should only of course help the Syrian people at Assad's request. It would protect Syrian lives because our support would of course be only on <a href="https://twitter.com/LeslieCBC/status/644633073263382529">the condition he uses the same rules of war we do</a>. But it is not about fighting ISIS and with this story of the resource wars I told you <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/16/us-mideast-crisis-syria-assad-idUSKCN0RG0LX20150916?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=topNews&amp;utm_source=twitter">I ask you read this piece and contemplate how much you really know about what's going on over there</a>. I hope by now in this series you're starting to pick up on language and key words and how they are being used to manipulate the public so pay attention and see if you can spot them.<br /><br /><i>This topic is a lot to digest so I will save the remaining topics for part 3.</i>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/elxn42-breakdown-part-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-4856089740577805335Tue, 15 Sep 2015 05:30:00 +00002015-10-15T10:23:01.751-06:00#elxn42 breakdown - Part 1<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><i>The government is us; we are the government, you and I.</i><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Theodore Roosevelt</div></blockquote><br />This blog has always tried to shy away from partisan direct political speech and influence and I've been proud to try and provide a space for Canadians (and international visitors) free from partisan rhetoric and spin. The purpose of this blog has never been to influence you politically, but rather to influence you personally so that you can evaluate the information I present and make personal decisions in your immediate life. With each and every post my attempt is to provide a comprehensive view of what I think is really going on and let you come to your own conclusions about what should or shouldn't be done. I don't have any faith or skin invested in the political game I only am invested in my own personal game, my family's game, of which the solutions do not reside with the talking heads on 24 Sussex.<br /><br />There are a few exceptions such as the recent Alberta election wherein clearly my positions on issues are directly contradictory to the old Progressive Conservative Party that ruled Alberta for 44 years. After 44 years of rule under one political ideology and party it no longer becomes about the party: the party and the government are one and the same.<br /><br />Astute readers may note that I rarely refer to the "government" in terms of the political party other than where I deem it appropriate and that is because when I criticize the government I am not criticizing an ideology, or a political party, I am criticizing actual actions by actual people that have power in this country and that is all I care about and in that same context readers may notice I do not jump on bandwagons like "Stop Harper". "Stopping Harper" is not a solution to Canada's major issues no more than "stop checking your email" is a solution to internet spam.<br /><br />So why am I telling you all this and what is this post really about? You might be asking yourself as we now enter the 4th paragraph. I'm glad you asked. All of this preamble is building up to the fact that I am about to provide my personal, and I really want to stress personal, opinions of what I see as Canada's major issues, where I see the 4 major running national party's standing on these issues, and most importantly: whether or not I actually believe them and why. I've gotten a few questions regarding the election from readers and twitter followers and while I hope my ramblings here are not what you're waiting for in regards to a final decision on who or what you will support there's been enough interest that I may as well lay it all out rather than try to explain my position in 140 characters.<br /><br />First before we get into the issues themselves I need to provide my primary position which is issue and party agnostic: vote local and vote with your heart.<br /><br />We do not need "anything but conservative" campaigns, we do not need to treat our political race like a presidential one. It is most important to remember that you're not really voting for an ideology but rather for a <u><b>local representative</b></u>. This is a person that can represent your riding and it's needs; it is up to the members of the house to decide which coalition of MPs forms the government. There is absolutely nothing that says that a government must be made up of the winning party, or any party at all. It could in theory be made up of an MP from various parties and even without an official party coalition. It could be a private coalition among members who are all on the same page and can command the confidence of the house.<br /><br />Now obviously many of the combinations I listed above are likely not going to happen especially with the divisive, hostile, and weary political environment we exist in today - an environment which is ripe for manipulation I might add. But it's important to remember above all what it is you're really voting for and I believe a house made up of honourable Canadians with the best intentions as opposed to party hacks and globalist insiders would be far superior to any easily co-opted ideology. If the best MP is a Conservative - one which answers your questions and takes your criticisms seriously and doesn't pussyfoot around real issues - then please vote them in.<br /><br />That being said our electoral system has been completely perverted into a faux presidential race and it is within this mindset most voters base their decision making and since I do not have the time, patience, energy or fucks to give about what each individual candidate represents for their constituents, nor do I have the experience to describe community level issues where I do not live, we will be looking at the highest level issues only from the perspective of the party leader/party ideology. Keep in mind your local candidate for the party may not entirely agree with the party position on every issue and it is therefore useful to find that out on an individual basis.<br /><br />Try and avoid deliberate attempts to further divide the populace and learn how to spot these attempts. Here is an example:<br /><div align="center"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">The Con and NDP twitter crackpots are out in force - the ones with 200 times more tweets than followers -so they're upset <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cdnpoli?src=hash">#cdnpoli</a></div>— Bob Rae (@BobRae48) <a href="https://twitter.com/BobRae48/status/641398507346067456">September 8, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Here is Bob Rae, an "honourable MP" and long term political insider, adding fuel to the divide and conquer fire. Much like WWE wrestling, or other pro-sports, rivalries are an act. In the wrestling ring opponents might "hate" each other but that's only for the public eye and to keep the confidence in the WWE act of the fan base much like the divide and conquer act played out in politics is to keep the confidence of the electorate in the system. And much like hockey or other team sports the idea a politician believes so fundamentally in the party and it's ideology is also an act. Political teams trade players all the time and as with Thomas Mulcair or Bill Blair we find that the end decision mostly depends on the contract they get with the team. Keep this in mind the next time you might mention how "lefties do this" or "rwnjs do that", to the players of the games they're all just "fans" (meaning fanatics) and it is with this knowledge of the psychology of fandom that the game of divide and conquer is played ultimately with the hope of getting the peasantry to point the fingers at each other rather than those at the top.<br /><br />Wow. I didn't realize I had so much to say on this election and we haven't even gotten into the issues or parties yet! Seriously though, I do apologize for the long read. Ok. The issues...<br /><br />This is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list and you'll note political party corruption and issues with candidates are missing. We will not be talking about Duffy, the NDPs expenses, PeeGate, or anything of the sort as these things are largely irrelevant from the global agenda at play and simply serve to distract the people from the real issues. We will also be avoiding issues that have the direct intent to divide the people (what I call "people issues") and which those at the top truly just don't care an example being pro-life/pro-choice - while your position on that issue may be very important to you I can assure you regardless of ideology or political party that whether or not women should/can have abortions matters not to the people in the top echelon beyond the umbrella implications of population control or the future strength of the tax base. We will instead be looking at issues that effect everyone and the trends which will define the future of Canada. These are as follows:<br /><br /><b>Domestic Issues</b><br />- The economy<br />- The environment<br />- Civil liberties<br />- First Nation treaties and rights<br /><br /><b>Foreign Issues</b><br />- The resource wars (or for the uninformed: 'The Syrian Refugee Crisis')<br />- T.P.P. and Free Trade<br /><br /><b>Governmental Issues</b><br />- The senate<br />- The centralization of power<br /><br />Each of these issues really demands an entire post unto itself but I will do my best to explore the most important aspects of each and tie it all together, each of these issues is related to each other.<br /><br /><b>The Economy</b><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>War is the continuation of politics by other means</i><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Carl von Clausewitz</div></blockquote><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><i>Politics is the continuation of economics by other means</i><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Michael C. Ruppert</div></blockquote><br />The economy is probably the most important of the issues listed above and not for the reasons Harper or the other leaders claim. It is the most important because everything else that is listed there takes place in an economic context and unless you understand that context and the implications of it you can easily be swept away in fancy statements with little or no meaning such as "growth that the middle class needs", "sustainable growth", or "a stable and strong economy". &nbsp;<a href="http://www.greenparty.ca/en/policy/vision-green/environment">In fact it is only the Green party in this regard which identifies the primary problem Canada (and all western nations and indeed the entire planet) is facing</a>.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">We need to correct the perception that economic success is dependent on growth and build understanding of the benefits of a steady-state economy (non-boom/bust economy). <b>Continued exponential growth is counter to the realities of a finite planet</b>.</span></blockquote>Notice that they explicitly state that what we engage in is "exponential growth" and that exponential growth is "counter to the realities of a finite planet". To some of you this may seem like a load of hippie hogwash and "leftist drizzle" but its actually rooted in the same monetary theory many that would consider themselves "Libertarians" (typically considered a far-right ideology) subscribe to. I also subscribe to this monetary theory of which the anti-thesis is our current monetary system.<br /><br />The growth that is demanded from our debt-based ponzi-conomy is exponential growth, which is why one of the big telling red-flags of those in the pockets of the bankers which aim to keep the unsustainable debt-based monetary system operating as long as possible is when a politician talks of the "need for growth". Chris Martenson has an excellent presentation on the consequences of a finite planet and exponential growth monetary systems which I would say is required viewing for making an informed decision about Canada's future:<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8WBiTnBwSWc" width="560"></iframe></div><br />His presentation doesn't really get into how the monetary system works (though he has many other pieces that do) rather it focuses on the consequences so if this type of material is basically unheard of to you it may be useful for you to first understand the monetary system itself of which <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2013/11/the-simplest-explanation-of-monetary.html">Mike Maloney has a great presentation which is easy to understand</a>.<br /><br />After watching those presentations you should now have a fairly good understanding as to why the NDP's suggestion of "sustainable growth" is patently false. The two words are an oxymoron especially being that the type of growth demanded by the monetary system is infinite and exponential. Further you should realize that the need for growth is no longer to service populations but is now purely to maintain the banking system and the elites that benefit from it. I know that sounds great but what does that mean for you and in practical terms?<br /><br />What it means is that we "need" temporary foreign workers because we can't find Canadians to work the counters at all of the sprawling Tim Hortons' that we likewise "need". We "need" these numerous establishments so much and they receive so much business that they can not afford to engage in wage competition instead complaining that workers demand too much compensation and as such they are "lazy". Canada's "need" to artificially expand it's labour pool is perhaps one of the most blatant proofs that the type of growth we engage in is no longer relevant, necessary, or sustainable.<br /><br />"Sustainable growth" is a catchy saying but it runs counter to the very meaning and reasons we currently "need" growth. Understand that when we talk about growth it is in addition to all of the collective growth up until now. %1 growth this year, is larger than 1% growth last year because this year's 1% is on top of the total of last year which already includes last year's 1%, get it? This is the nature of the "exponential" in exponential growth and it is &nbsp;for this reason that Mulcair's "sustainable growth" is a lie.<br /><br />Because growth is always on top of all previous growth, to return to something "sustainable" would represent in Canada a major initial contraction. This isn't to say that Mulcair's ideas in "sustainable growth" are bad ideas. We should be investing in a clean and modern future but this clean and modern future must come with a reform of how the economy and monetary creation now works.<br /><br />Trudeau and Harper's economic positions are much more militantly "pro-growth" than Mulcair's though I wouldn't say by that much. In truth all of them are really promoting ideas very close to the others and wrapping it in the appropriate spin for their bases. Mulcair ties "sustainable" and "growth" together hoping "far-left" progressives don't know what the word sustainable means. Trudeau wraps his in the "middle class" claiming he has the answers to the "growth the middle class needs" which is even more meaningless than Mulcair's catch-phrase.<br /><br />I say it is more meaningless as Trudeau's plan is really nothing more than the status-quo <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2012/11/the-trudeauth-of-matter.html">and he has even told you this before</a>.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">For much of our history, the only trading relationship that mattered was with the United States. From Laurier to Mulroney, it defined our politics in watershed elections that bookended the last century, and inflamed passionate debates about national identity throughout. <b>As we grew more confident, Canadians arrived at the conclusion, supported by the evidence, that openness to trade is good for us. It expands our horizons, as well as our national wealth.</b></span><b>&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">That was the 20th century. The 21st century is different. Trade remains a paramount objective, but we can no longer rely on the U.S. alone to drive our growth.</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">I am not one of those who believe the U.S. is in serious decline. Our relationship with our southern neighbour remains our most important, but we cannot afford to miss vital opportunities elsewhere. <b>By 2030, two-thirds of the planet’s middle class will be in Asia. How we define and manage our relationship with Asian economies to play a Canadian role in fuelling that growth will matter as much to the Canadian middle class in this century as our relationship with the U.S. did in the last.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">So how are we doing? Canada benefited from being the first western country to recognize the People’s Republic of China, but we have lost ground recently. The Conservatives kicked off their stewardship of the relationship with unhelpful sabre-rattling, followed by a stubborn silence. Recently, they have made attempts at courtship, but China’s leadership has a long memory. Influence and trust is built through consistent, constructive engagement.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Further, the Conservatives have developed their approach to Asia, such as it is, behind closed doors. This is a mistake. Where is the leadership to explain to Canadians why this relationship is so important, to engage Canadians in the conversation, to make us aware of the opportunities?<br /><br />Because we have failed to make the case for trade, Canadians are understandably anxious. <b>Because we failed to ensure that the middle class participates in the growth created by trade, support for it has recently broken down.</b></span></blockquote>This is from Trudeau's article on CNOOC and free trade back in 2012 where in he within a few paragraphs completely contradicts himself and admits that&nbsp;"we failed to ensure that the middle class participates in the growth created by trade" yet talks about how free trade has increased our national wealth. Well if it's not the middle class who received this wealth, and it's not the poor who received this wealth who did? This type of doublespeak exists within all of Trudeau's economic content to varying degrees but no contradiction shows where his real interests lie more than his CNOOC article. Don't believe me?<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Personal income for middle-class Canadians has stagnated for more than a generation. <b>This deeply troubling development is masked by a rise in family income, due to the entry of a new generation of well-educated, hard-working women into the workforce. While this phenomenon is overwhelmingly positive, we must be clear-eyed in understanding that it is a one-time benefit.</b></span></blockquote><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>So, we’re left with the vexing question: where will the next wave of growth for the middle class come from?</b></span></blockquote>This paragraph is littered with news-speak so you may need to read it a few times, especially if you're a woman. Go on, I'll wait.<br /><br />Alright, hopefully you have spotted the problem and if not then welcome to Propaganda 101. What Trudeau is essentially saying here is that "we need to find new suckers to keep the monetary ponzi-scheme going and we've already exhausted the entry of women into the workforce so we're left with the vexing question where will the next wave of growth for the middle-class come from?". Notice also that by claiming the entry of women into the workforce was the "last wave" of growth for the middle-class he confirms once again that "we failed to ensure that the middle class participates in the growth created by trade".<br /><br />This paragraph is worded as it is to bring to mind ideals of equality for women in the workforce when it couldn't be farther from. It is perhaps the most compelling evidence Trudeau is fully aware of how the monetary system really operates and that like the others in the top echelon view people as nothing more than "human resources" necessary to work at the bottom to feed the top. Notice you don't see Trudeau saying we should return to a level of income required for a "single-income family" rather the "vexing question" is where the "next wave" of growth will come from.<br /><br />Reading Trudeau's full CNOOC article you'll see the answer is the Chinese, back in 2012 when they were building 20+ empty cities and calling that growth which has lead to their overvalued stock market of today, the volatility, and the loss in faith that China is where the "next wave" will come from. Politicians are now back to the idea it will be coming from the U.S. but notice no one is saying it will be coming from Canadians. The reason why is simple: the Canadian ponzi-conomy has grown larger than our sparse population, and if you read between the lines in these politician's statements you'll see that they know this.<br /><br />Harper's position on the economy offers nothing new to this conversation so I won't explore the Conservative platform further on this.<br /><br />As a general rule I personally go by: if a politician talks about the need for "growth" they're either brainwashed with modern voodoo economic fundamentalism, or worse as I suspect with the 3 main party leaders: they are beholden to the international bankers and the neo-feudalist corporate empire being built on the ashes of the United States and are fully-aware and intentionally deceiving as to the operation of this system.<br /><br />I cover this material a lot on this blog so I won't go further into it now but if you're a new-comer please feel free to browse, regular readers have heard this all before.<br /><br />Hopefully now you have a sense as to why I say the economy is the most important issue and as you'll see each additional issue I'll be getting into all revolves around maintaining stability of the banking system and the ponzi-scheme we call an economy.<br /><br /><b>The Environment</b><br /><b><br /></b>I've listed the environment second as contrary to popular belief these two are directly intertwined and much of the economic misinformation translates to environmental misinformation as well. This is especially true when it comes to carbon tax or carbon trading schemes and their supposed value which purposely feeds off people's misinformation of how the economy actually works. <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2014/07/a-carbon-tax-is-never-going-to-work-for.html">I explore these thoughts in full in another post </a>but in regards to this I leave you with this "vexing" question: if banks were not allowed to fail what makes you think a failing energy company deemed "too big to fail" will not also receive printed central bank currency bailouts?<br /><br />The idea we can "buy" credit in the environment with currency that is literally printed out of thin air and backed by nothing but future labour and production is absolutely insane. The idea of using currency (money) to regulate environmental destruction and &nbsp;emission growth would only work if the currency itself was sound and finite to properly reflect the reality of a finite planet. Short of that there is nothing stopping central banks from conjuring up new currency to pay for the carbon and as a result the supposed limit it puts is meaningless. Much as banks are simply able to write-off risk on to the back of the taxpayer so too will energy companies and emitters as their survival is essential to the survival of the monetary system without the sort of contraction we discussed earlier in regards to Mulcair's "sustainable development".<br /><br />These facts might be forgiveable if their usage to invest in the future was genuine but like most big-money schemes this one is likewise false. The carbon tax outright will likely over time simply end up in general revenue providing yet another tax base for expansionary monetary policy which if the banking system is not to collapse the government will need to engage in. The carbon trading market on the other hand is just the next market bubble oriented around the only thing more plentiful and common than printed currency itself and is the only financial bubble that can hope to exceed the global bond bubble.<br /><br />Neither solution is a true solution, and yes the problem is very real. For those hard-line partisans understand its not that: "global warming is false and everything is a scam", or "global warming is real and we need to price carbon", it is that "global warming is real and carbon pricing is a scam". This is a classic case of the global elite not "letting a good crisis go to waste" which for all those surprised by the World Bank and IMF supporting these schemes: now you know why.<br /><br />Being that this is the case my position on the party lines on the economy also doubles for the environment. Any party that is all about growth is not only lying about sustainability, the middle-class, but also the true meaning of being environmentally responsible. As <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/albertas-new-permanent-reality.html">I discussed recently about Alberta</a> as the economic situation deteriorates further largely due to peak (conventional) oil all sorts of 'corner cutting' will become more and more acceptable and necessary to service the exponential growth monetary system's debt load and expected levels of production needed to meet that debt load.<br /><br />I know, its been a long read so far. Time for an intermission.<br /><br /></div><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dHPjw3ZbSOs" width="420"></iframe></div><br /><b>Civil Liberties</b><br /><b><br /></b>It is in this area this election where the NDP really shines even though they took their time fully opposing bill C51 and essentially followed the Green Party's lead. That said it is highly unlikely the Green Party will form a government and the NDP have a fair shot of doing so and the importance of C51 can not be understated. The pledge to repeal C51 has been a primary talking point of Mulcair's and would be difficult for him to renegade on. There are a few caveats to the NDP position in this regard though:<br /><br /><ul><li>Nothing has been said about what if anything C51 would be replaced with. The assumption amongst NDP supporters is that it would be repealed and that is the end of it but the NDP hasn't explicitly said that either. My biggest fear in supporting the NDP explicitly for this reason is that without addressing the larger encroaching surveillance state they do not go far enough in fingering the culprits and those who want it.</li><li>In the same context as them leaving this topic open-ended beyond repealing bill C51 and championing the Charter of Rights (or what's left of it) their position also leaves the existing intrusive unaccountable system intact which while not making the situation worse it doesn't really solve anything either.</li></ul><div>I can summarize Trudeau's and Harper's position on civil liberties in two words: Bill Blair.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bills like C51 are essential for what will become increasingly authoritarian governments to micro-manage economic growth and try to prevent revolt. It is imperative to understand that they are not being enacted to "protect us from terrorists". They are not being enacted for our safety. Terrorism (as we will get to a bit later in this post) is a multi-faceted excuse for western foreign and domestic policy which goes against our traditional values (as we're told those values are, not our real values like colonialism) and as such requires external influence to manipulate a popular consensus on.</div><div><br /></div><div>As <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150705/18174231556/spain-government-goes-full-police-state-enacts-law-forbidding-dissent-unauthorized-photography-law-enforcement.shtml">with other governments in the world</a> it is highly likely that as real conditions on the ground deteriorate further and the 'recovery' narrative losses confidence in the critical mass or another environmental mistake is made while cutting corners on par or worse than Lac-Mégantic the government itself may start losing legitimacy. Put simply: anti-terror legislation exists for the sole reason of thwarting any attempt at overthrowing the criminal status-quo. The insistence by governments all across the globe in unison that they must violate civil liberties to "protect us from the terrorists" is nothing more than further usage of the following as written by Zbigniew Brzezinski in 'The Grand Chessboard':</div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multi-cultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, <b>except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.</b></span></blockquote>It is for this reason, and my suspicions of Mulcair's true allegiances to the banking oligarchy that I find Mulcair's C51 position slightly hallow and I'd ask Canadians to at least be wary of that fact.<br /><br />Another general rule: all campaign promises should be taken with a grain of salt.<br /><br /><b>First Nation treaties and rights</b><br /><b><br /></b>First Nation issues are vast and encompassing and I would never try to speak for them. Frankly, not being First Nation, I am simply not qualified to do so. In fact I believe we have plenty to learn from them.<br /><br />The First Nations, even if most Canadians don't know it yet, are Canadas front line of defence against infinite exponential growth and the international corporate authoritarian system being implemented through covert means. While Canadians might be fooled or confused as to the intents of the system with no direct experience being on the receiving end <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/03/we-are-all-one-now-ok.html">the First Nation people are able to identify instantly what is being done</a>. This makes them dangerous.<br /><br />They're even more dangerous because unlike the faux "sustainable growth" Canadians believe in the First Nation people have recollection and stories of actual sustainable living. Sustainable to them and sustainable to us mean very different things and as such fooling them into supporting "sustainable growth", or any growth, won't be easy.<br /><br />It's no coincidence that the greater focus on "consultation with First Nation people" has grown in focus following their militant blockades of pipelines and economic expansion. It is important to understand that "consultation" is really code for "pay offs". The government is dumping significant resources into getting their permission for economic expansion, but comparatively other First Nation issues like the Missing and Murdered, or basic water access, are held back by endless red tape and a general lack of effort. The two in contrast are shocking.<br /><br />Understand that "consulting" with First Nations is really just a discussion of which number is the right number. What number is big enough that the Chiefs and their bands can not say no? especially when they have been subject to rampant poverty and neglect? This is billed to the Canadian people as "working with" First Nations but in reality they are being given no choice. This type of negotiation is not much different than an economic hitman getting a sovereign nation to agree to a punitive trade deal; sure in the end it's the "country" that agreed to the trade deal but the agreement is made under duress and so it is with energy companies, land rights, and First Nations.<br /><br />First Nations are thirdly dangerous because they truly do have the legal right to do what they are doing and their systematic suppression is not by accident.<br /><br />This brings us to the end of the 'domestic issues' portion. By now it should be clear how the central theme of infinite exponential growth and the survival of the banking system and status-quo is the top priority at work and permeates into every thread of Canadian life and policy.<br /><br /><i>That brings us to the end of part 1. In part 2 we will look at the remaining issues I've pointed to as the underlying trends in Canada, a summary of my position on each party, and a few more general statements.</i>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/elxn42-breakdown-part-1.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-271197752223137195Fri, 11 Sep 2015 08:21:00 +00002015-09-11T02:25:45.895-06:00Remembering the truth and lies of 9/11On this anniversary of the tragic losses on 9/11, and the start of the now 14 year non stop resource war in the Middle East and Africa please take the time to listen to Mike Ruppert's tale from *2002 of 9/11, the derivative bubble, CIA drug smuggling, and the war that Dick Cheney told us "would not end in our lifetime".<br /><br /><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">* This version was updated in 2004.</span></i><br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_uU6U7H7Aws" width="420"></iframe></div><br />http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/remembering-truth-and-lies-of-911.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-5639449756256946415Thu, 10 Sep 2015 05:16:00 +00002015-09-10T10:52:43.346-06:00When it comes to Syria, what are you really supporting?Presented with no comment.<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pHFnvFbThDE" width="560"></iframe></div><br /><br /><a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2012/08/cfr-syrian-rebels-would-be-immeasurably.html">CFR: The Syrian rebels would be immeasurably weaker today without al-Qaeda in their ranks</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.rt.com/news/314852-assange-wikileaks-us-syria/">Assange on ‘US Empire,’ "<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Gill Sans Light', Helvetica; font-size: 15.0015px; line-height: 21.0021px;">Washington had plans to overthrow Syria's government long before the 2011 uprising began."</span></a><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KxKi_7We7v4" width="420"></iframe></div>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/when-it-comes-to-syria-what-are-you.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-1981602154473650703Wed, 09 Sep 2015 21:32:00 +00002015-09-12T10:15:12.826-06:00UPDATE-1: Alberta's new permanent realityIt's been my assertion all throughout Alberta's good times that they would be quickly coming to an end. It may have seemed hard to believe that 'oil' was somehow not as profitable as people thought. The complexities of understanding the difference between currency and real wealth and the complications introduced by ever lower energy returns on energy investment are likewise harder concepts to grasp.<br /><br />It is for this reason that to this day proponents of oilsands insist that this is a cyclical problem and that before we know it the "boom times" will be back, the reality unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it) is that Alberta's oil industry has now entered a permanent decline and while oil may continue to be produced it will not have the net-benefits Albertans have come to expect from them even though the bar on what would be considered acceptable net-benefits was already extremely low.<br /><br />At the beginning of last year, when oil was still high and expected to go higher, I wrote a post titled "<a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2014/01/oilsands-proponents-have-yet-to.html">oilsands proponents have yet to describe the infinite growth endgame</a>" in which I commented on a post by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Neil+Young+like+most+moral+coward+Tandt/9405620/story.html" style="background-color: white; color: #660000; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.8px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Michael Den Tandt</a>&nbsp;about the trending Neil Young commentary at the time.<br /><br />I of course don't really care what populist celebrities have to say about oilsands development but I do take issue with so called journalists who paint a rosy picture of "growth and prosperity" for all through oilsands development when the truth couldn't be farther from.<br /><br />Now however, not even two years after Den Tandt's article on how we should be throwing everything at the oilsands to support their growth Alberta Oil Magazine has come out with an article titled&nbsp;"<a href="http://www.albertaoilmagazine.com/2015/09/mining-project-oil-sands/">Why the Oil Sands May Never See Another New Mining Project Built</a>" in which they effectively admit the infinite growth endgame has arrived. It should be noted that the reasoning they use is the exact same reasoning I've been talking about for the last 4 years on my blogs (and longer in terms of my thoughts which drove me to start blogging in the first place). Such as:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>CAPP confirmed that in its annual forecast in June, when it reduced estimated oil sands production for 2030 to four million barrels per day. That’s down from 4.8 million barrels per day in its 2014 forecast, and 5.2 million barrels per day in the 2013 version. </b>And according to ARC Financial’s Peter Tertzakian, that revised and reduced forecast is still too optimistic. “I think the era of big megaprojects up there is really over,” he says. <b>“Even before the price crash there was a trend in oil and gas investing – whether it was by large corporations or individual investors – away from long-payback projects with lots of above-ground risk that were also characterized by very high capital costs.”</b> That trend, he says, is a reflection of the fact that energy investors have more to choose from today. “The oil sands has to compete for capital with all the other types of oil projects that are out there. It has to morph into something cleaner, smaller in size and less capital intensive. It’s definitely possible to do, <b>but the old paradigm of 4,000-man camps and long construction periods is over.”</b></span></blockquote>Of course if the old paradigm of 4000 man camps is over, so is the old paradigm of the oilsands being a major source of job creation and being that their royalties are so low and require so much government support just to remain operational the silver lining in their operation was the sheer number of jobs they required. At the end of the day oilsands proponents would always cite jobs as the main reason to keep them around, they may not have provided much net-benefits to the public in general especially with how their wages distorted Alberta's economy for those who weren't rolling in oil cash but at least they provided some personal benefit to the employees in terms of fairly large (but still a drop in the bucket of what these workers should have been making) returns.<br /><br />By no net-benefit for the public in general what I of course mean is that the infrastructure requirements and the services needed to support the population influx generated by the oilsands was far too expensive and was not covered by the returns the oilsands provide and as I've described many times before the benefits they appeared to provide were more so a function of 1) Alberta significantly under-funding infrastructure expansion and services for the population and 2) a business model entirely based on the rapid rise of oil prior to 2008. It is the phantom of the oil market prior to 2008 which continues to provide the basis of the "coming oil boom" today.<br /><br />However, even with this significantly reduced &nbsp;expectations of the production and return of oilsands projects the outlook is still far too rosy and the real turmoil for extreme energy intensive oil and gas extraction has barely begun.<br /><br /><a href="http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Financial-Sector-To-Cut-Credit-Supply-Lines-For-Oil-And-Gas-Industry.html">Financial Sector To Cut Credit Supply Lines For Oil And Gas Industry</a><br /><div><a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKCN0QU1DJ20150825">Bad oil-and-gas loans soar as BMO profit tops estimates</a></div><a href="http://www.theprovince.com/travel/Chinese+money+launderers+snap+Vancouver+real+estate/11262931/story.html?google_editors_picks=true">Oil-Sands Producers Mimic Coal Cost Cuts as Prices Spiral Lower</a><br /><div><br /></div><div>Of course these issues related to extreme energy production go far beyond the oilsands, deep water drilling and fracking are also largely affected. This was perhaps further highlighted when <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/irving-oil-to-invest-in-turnaround-project-at-saint-john-refinery-1440080588">Irving oil refineries discovered it is now cheaper to refine Brent crude, which has to travel across the ocean, than it is to refine fracked crude from North Dakota</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 'imploding market' has now gotten so bad for fracking that fracking companies have been throwing more and more resources into what they claim is a "more efficient" way to produce fracked crude for an already oversupplied and deflating market. This is of course not because they are still profitable but because as we've discussed before they're all inundated with "sunk costs" and essentially have no choice but to keep producing on the hope they can someday return to profitable margins. In the meantime as they're hoping for "better days" they're continuing to waste more and more non-renewable resources including fresh water even as the drought conditions in the U.S. persist. <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/02/frackers-change-methods-in-imploding-oil-market.html">It's shocking how with survival methods like these anyone can possibly think "economic growth" is anywhere on the horizon.</a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of pumping water, minerals and chemicals into shale rock beneath the Earth's surface to break them up and release oil and gas. It has driven America's booming production of shale oil throughout the last decade. But more recently, companies like Liberty and <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/EOG">EOG Resources</a> have <b>advocated a fracking method that uses more water and minerals to break up shale at high pressure in multiple stages</b>.</span></blockquote>Yes, even more water, and even more minerals, for what was an already intensive process and for what? To continue oversupplying the world with oil that our economic deflationary vortex will never need? For so called "money"?<br /><br />The biggest issue with projects like this isn't that they're not really that profitable, it's not even that they're not going to be profitable, The biggest issue with projects like this is the lengths those operating the current monetary paradigm are going to go to to make them seem profitable. Here are a couple examples:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/capping-oil-well-blowouts-within-24-hours-too-expensive-says-ottawa-1.3181285">Capping oil well blowouts within 24 hours too expensive, says Ottawa</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The federal government says it is agreeing to an offshore drilling plan that would allow up to 21 days to bring in capping technology for a subsea well blowout, <b>because requiring a shorter response time would be too expensive for Shell Canada Ltd.</b></span></blockquote><a href="http://www.edmontonjournal.com/story.html?id=11325399">Alberta Energy Regulator orders Nexen to suspend operations on 95 pipelines</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">It issued the order late Friday due to what it calls non-compliance surrounding pipeline maintenance and monitoring in its Long Lake oilsands project.<br />Alberta Energy Regulator spokesman Bob Curran said every oil and gas company is required to monitor, inspect and maintain records for all of their pipelines.<br />Nexen couldn't demonstrate that those activities have occurred on those lines, which carry several products including crude oil, natural gas, salt water, fresh water and emulsion, Curran said.</span></blockquote>Now this last link is very interesting as perhaps for the first time maybe ever the Alberta energy regulator is doing what it's supposed to do rather than simply rubber stamp everything that comes it's way. I attribute this largely to the new Notley government and while I applaud their efforts to finally bring some sort of accountability to oilsands projects this event also shows how far off the mark the Alberta and Canadian governments have been in regards to how "safe" these projects really are.<br /><br />The reality is that because these projects are so capital intensive there is no room, or cash, for the type of tightly monitored and strict safety measures we claim to have which just might explain why shortly after the regulators actions <a href="http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/edmonton/Nexen+shut+down+Long+Lake+facility+after+regulator/11333395/story.html">Nexen shut down the entire site</a> (no confirmation yet as to the true reason but it fits with the problematic environment).<br /><br />Now I've known for a long time how fraudulent Albertas claims to profitability and high standards of safety have been not from news articles but because being Albertan it's hard not to know someone inside the industry. I have never written about these personal stories I've been told over the years as without news articles to at least back up the situation it would probably be considered no more than hearsay at best. At this time though and with the previous links showing how our cost constraints impact our ambitious environmental and safety concerns I'd like to give an idea of some of the insider stories I've heard in regards to oilsands operations particularly in material coordination being I'm in Edmonton and most insiders I know are in this field.<br /><br />What is particularly interesting about these stories is that in most cases it is employees taking shortcuts themselves in an effort to save their own ass. Perhaps one of the most repeated stories I've heard was about situations where materials for pipes would be ordered that were not of the correct thickness but due to upstream pressure and a desire for the employee to not personally take the fall for the fuckup they simply pass it on and rubber stamp the papers. In truth many of the executives sitting at the top of these companies really have no clue how chaotic the process is on the actual ground. These executives write up fancy manuals on safety and the proper handling of materials but the employees are so overworked and under such pressure to deliver they're never followed.<br /><br />My point with this story is that not only are companies "officially" cutting corners such as with the Nexen pipelines not being properly monitored but "unofficially" employees are taking it upon themselves to cut corners to meet demand and not take a personal hit. These stories are not just isolated to low-level employees but also mid-level managers who when these issues are brought to their attention instruct the employees to paper over and ignore the issue passing it upstream so as not to take the performance hit. Over the years I've heard these stories enough to come to the conclusion they're more the rule, than the exception, and these were during the good times.<br /><br />Whether you believe these stories or not (though I assure you they are true) at this point no longer matters as now with the worsening economic situation these holes are becoming ever more obvious along with the unprofitable nature of extreme oil production but I'm telling you them to provide a glimpse into the clusterfuck it really is and that for every story I have heard there are surely hundreds I haven't.<br /><br />The failing expectations on oil are bad, but could be contained, the larger issue which is really what I've been concerned about all of these years are the domino effect it's going to have in everyone and everything that's built up an expectation of hyper-inflated growth with no end.<br /><br />Alberta's new NDP government, <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/04/the-alberta-debate-2015-abvote.html">which is largely following the path I forecast it would in regards to debt, infrastructure, and oil production</a> is (I believe) in good faith and with well intentions trying to fill in the gaps and holes Alberta's 40 year dynasty of oil insiders acting like politicians has left us in their efforts to fool the Albertan population into believing the oilsands were just as if not more profitable than conventional oil. However I also believe the NDP is doing this either in preparation for, or hope that, the mega growth Alberta has experienced in the past will one day return. Preparation because to properly service the population we're anticipating we'll have we need to prepare and invest ahead of time. Hope, because if this expected population does not materialize we will have greatly expanded our infrastructure for no one, and it's probably likely that without the oil production this infrastructure was built for, and the returns we expect it'll give us, it will be a great burden on the remaining population of Alberta to pay for especially with central banks near running the course on the temporary positive benefits continually lowering interest rates have provided. Simply: Alberta started these initiatives too late and it will likely be the NDP that takes the "blame" for such issues though Alberta's path was largely set in stone years ago long before they ever came to power.<br /><br />This domino effect could easily ripple through the province, such as in Edmonton where sky-cranes tower over the downtown core building new high rises and the new arena which all assume that at the end of the construction there will be an infusion of ever growing capital and ever richer people to pay the premium prices for tickets, office, and apartment space and keep the property bubble blowing. If Alberta Oil Magazine, and myself, are correct no new mega projects means the influx of population Alberta has experienced in the past is over and done with never to return, in fact Alberta's population may greatly decrease as the Canadian economic propaganda about how strong our economy is has moved back to eastern and central Canada and the great predictions of exports and a U.S. recovery. This will of course leave the investors funding these developments holding the empty bag (or office tower as it were) <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/vacancy-rates-increasing-rents-dropping-for-edmonton-tenants-1.3170352">creating further damage to Alberta's already overheated and overpriced property market</a>.<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br /><b><br /></b>Alberta and it's oil industry may be adjusting expectations but at too slow a rate to really grasp our current condition. We continue to underestimate the associated costs of extreme energy production and also continue to base our expectations of such production on market conditions that are nearly a decade in the past. The global deflationary event we are experiencing derives from how expensive energy has become in the post-peak oil environment and yes while the market price of these resources is currently low which reflects the oversupply and depressed demand this oversupply is far from proof the good days will be back again being most of it is being produced at a loss or at cost within the North American realm. The more oil we drill today the less there will be to drill tomorrow when we're going to really need it and sooner or later with such a highly leveraged economy something has got to give. Whether good and/or bad, it's an omen.<br /><br /><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xMVTKOoy1uk" width="560"></iframe></div><br /><b>Update-1:</b><br /><b><br /></b>Great piece out of Zero Hedge:&nbsp;'<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-11/inside-ground-zero-canadas-burst-oil-bubble">Inside Ground Zero Of Canada's Recession</a>'.http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/09/albertas-new-permanent-reality.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-5502342231494184888Tue, 28 Jul 2015 21:30:00 +00002015-07-28T15:30:47.644-06:00"Puzzled" BoC cuts rates, admits "rate cut will increase financial imbalances"<div class="tr_bq">Well it's official: <a href="http://www.torontosun.com/2015/07/15/economists-bank-of-canada-to-make-rate-cut">another notch on the interest rate belt</a> (Canada's now really losing rate fast, the austerity diet must be working). The great deflation is definitely now underway.</div><br />Before I really dive into some of Poloz's comments today I want to take you back to January of this year where the Bank of Canada first cut rates (a rate cut which I will point out now obviously didn't do anything). <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/01/sorry-folks-recovery-has-been-delayed.html">Flashback, January, 2015</a>:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">The Group of Seven’s biggest crude exporter is already feeling the effects of crude oil dropping below $50 a barrel, as companies such as Calgary-based Suncor Energy Inc. reduce staffing and investment. The central bank said today said&nbsp;<strong>the economic recovery will be delayed until the end of next year</strong>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<strong>needed rotation from indebted consumers to growth fueled by business spending is less certain</strong>.</span></blockquote>Suffice to say the needed rotation from indebted consumers to growth fueled by business spending didn't happen and this has the BoC quite "puzzled" but despite being "puzzled" and despite the January rate cut not working they're cutting rates again anyway even though they've stated when they originally cut rates (and again repeated this time) they do not expect to see the rebound until the second half of the year. Hmm - so if everything is still ultimately going to plan why cut rates?<br /><br />But their outlook gets even better for their expected rebound is based on their predictions of U.S. growth! Like, did nobody catch the fact that they now are not only failing to predict our growth situation, but are trying to predict the U.S. growth situation too? Reporters and listeners swallowed this up without even blinking, that someone that was "puzzled" why their forecasts weren't coming true in regards to their now infamous predictions of a lower dollar somehow boosting exports to the population in the U.S. which is equally indebted was now feeding them lines of predictions of not only this country but another as well and nobody bats an eye.<br /><br />Frankly, Stephen Poloz, like Mark Carney, is full of shit.<br /><br />Of course much of the talk of improvement in the U.S. is being driven by the Federal Reserve's constant talk about raising rates even though time after time they delay it in hopes growth takes on some sort of momentum (spoiler: it won't) much as a few years ago Carney was constantly talking about raising rates which as I accurately described back then was a bluff in a hope to sort of terrorize the population not into taking personal loans. News articles blanketed Canadian outlets on "what to do when rates rise", etc, etc. It was all bullshit folks and so is the U.S. talk of raising rates.<br /><br />To be honest I doubt the Fed will raise rates at all. If the U.S. does raise rates it will simply be so that they can then lower them again for the global recession the world has already entered (or more accurately never escaped), the <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-14/diminishing-returns-central-planning-policy-extremes-2016-crash">Fed and the world's central banks are out of tools</a>.<br /><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Another way to understand the increasing reliance on central-planning extremes and their declining effectiveness is diminishing returns: more treasure, capital, time, energy and labor must be expended to keep the status quo from falling off a cliff.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmay13/diminishing-return5-13.html">The Fatal Disease of the Status Quo: Diminishing Returns</a>&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmay13/diminishing-return5-13.html"></a> All of this extreme malinvestment requires more and more control of the national resources, so liberties must be curtailed and further extremes of centralized power and control must be imposed on the hapless citizenry. The resources of the many are increasingly stripmined to maintain the power and avarice of the few.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">I recently discussed these trends with Greg Hunter of <a href="http://usawatchdog.com/">USAwatchdog.com</a> in a 23-minute video program, <a href="http://usawatchdog.com/policy-extremes-maintain-illusion-of-stability-charles-hugh-smith/">Policy Extremes Maintain Illusion of Stability</a>.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Let's review the policy extremes that are yielding diminishing returns:&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> 1. Zero interest rate policy (ZIRP): central planners' favorite tool for robbing savers and people who have socked away money for their retirement and handing the cash to banks. Now that central bankers have pegged interest rates at zero for 6+ years, there's nothing left in ZIRP but to push rates into negative territory, i.e. it now costs you money to park your cash in a bank.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> There's not much juice left in the zero-interest rate policy, and negative interest rates smack of central-planning desperation--which feeds the very fear and insecurity that trigger panics and crashes.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> 2. Directly buying assets to prop up failing markets. The Chinese central planners are the latest authorities to reach for the last tool at the bottom of the central-planning toolbox:buying stocks and bonds directly to create the illusion of demand for increasingly shaky financial assets.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> There are two problems with creating bogus demand by using central bank money to buy stocks and bonds: one is this communicates desperation (see above), and the vast scale of bubblicious debt and equity markets have turned even trillion-dollar purchases by central planners into handfuls of sand thrown at a rising tide.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-20/all-worlds-investable-assets-context">Global equities now total $64 trillion and debt securities (bonds, etc.) total $95 trillion.</a> Global real estate totals $180 trillion. Once the risk-on euphoric trust in central banks' omnipotence fades and risk-off selling begins in earnest, how much would central banks have to buy of this $340 trillion to keep the bubble inflated?&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> Is it plausible to believe that central planners buying less than 1% of this will stop a landslide of selling? Would even 2% ($7 trillion) make any difference?&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> 3. The grab-bag of desperate policy extremes: banning short-selling, bail-ins (the theft of depositors' cash to bail out the bankers), partial closure of stock exchanges, currency devaluations, and so on. You can create a good catalog by just listing every action of Chinese central planners in the past month.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> As noted above, the problem with these policy extremes is that they are so painfully visibly acts of central-planning desperation. If things are as positive as we're told, then why are central planners forced to impose such absurdly extreme policies to keep the status quo from imploding?&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> If these policies worked, why are interest rates still pegged to zero after six years of "growth" and the inflation of monumental asset bubbles?&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> If these policies don't work (and they obviously don't, otherwise the authorities could have normalized interest rates and ceased quantitative easing, stock purchases, plunge protection schemes, etc. many years ago) and central planners keep doing more of what has failed, then the only possible conclusions are:&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> 1. The policy extremes will never work&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"> 2. The central planners' continued expansion of policy extremes reveals their desperation&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">3. When diminishing returns drop below the zero boundary, the system crashes.</span></blockquote>&nbsp;It's now been a week and a half since I began writing this post as I just didn't feel there was enough content here on it's own but of course when it comes to the Bank of Canada all you need to do is leave for a few days and some other point inevitably will be brought up and <a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCAKCN0PV26F20150721">this holds true today</a>.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada has come under fire for its increased reliance on an inflation gauge that some economists say sows confusion in financial markets and could eventually lead to monetary policy errors.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The central bank, which angered many forecasters in January with a surprise rate cut and eased again this month, has a mandate to control inflation, measured by the country's consumer price index (CPI). It also uses a core-CPI measure that strips out some volatile items.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Bank of Canada policymakers have put less onus in recent months on these public measures, pointing to the bank's own calculation of an "underlying trend in inflation."</span>&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>They say this measure, which excludes transitory factors like meat shortages and the effect of a weakening Canadian dollar, gives a clearer picture of slack in the economy.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>But some economists say its use effectively shifts the goal posts</b>, making it harder to interpret how Governor Stephen Poloz will react to data and increasing the risk interest rates could stay low for too long.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>"If the economy was in better shape, and for whatever reason they didn't want to raise rates, what's to keep them from understating where they believe underlying inflation is?" asked Bank of Montreal senior economist Benjamin Reitzes.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The Bank of Canada's is supposed to keep inflation at the midpoint of a 1 percent to 3 percent target range. While annual inflation was at just 1.0 percent in June, <b>core-CPI was 2.3 percent and has run above the 2 percent target since August.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>But the bank estimated underlying inflation was 1.5 percent to 1.7 percent when it cut rates on Wednesday, and said much of the difference with core-CPI is due to currency weakness, which boosts import prices.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Combined with the bank's decision to drop forward guidance, the use of an unpublished underlying trend means less transparency, said David Tulk, chief Canada macro strategist at TD Securities.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>"It is unorthodox to be using a measure that cannot be calculated by others," Tulk said. "Since they model the currency pass-through and other one-time effects, their underlying measure cannot be easily replicated."&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">In response to the criticisms, the Bank of Canada said that while it targets total inflation, underlying inflation helps it understand "noise" from temporary factors.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"Our use of multiple measures of inflation, which we clearly explain, helps us avoid making monetary policy errors - it doesn't increase the risk of making them," spokeswoman Louise Egan said.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"This type of analysis is not new for the Bank. Our challenge has always been to look through the temporary effects and aim our policy at the movements in inflation that are persistent."&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">CIBC World Markets Chief Economist Avery Shenfeld sees some justification for looking through the depreciation effect, but takes issue with excluding other things like meat and phone costs.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>"That practice could down the road have the Bank of Canada ignoring an inflation trend that wasn't as temporary," he said.<br /><br />TD's Tulk said the fact core inflation was above 2 percent at the time added to the surprise of the January cut and noted that other central banks tend to focus on public inflation gauges.</b></span></blockquote>&nbsp;Yes, the "puzzled" Bank of Canada is so amazing at forecasting that they use a super-secret "inflation trend" metric which conveniently despite the fact core-cpi has been running at 2.3% hasn't yet met their 2% inflation target. Of course for the people on the ground that 2.3% (likely understated as the two tier economy of the poor relies heavily on these volatile items) is very real. That's real currency coming out of your monthly budget. Contrast this with the bank's earlier statement: "rate cut will increase financial imbalances" and it seems full well they know what they're doing, doesn't it? The rate cuts are just not in your favour; they're in the favour of the banking and credit oligarchs who need even more liquidity.<br /><br />You'll remember awhile ago <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/02/understanding-low-interest-in-risk_20.html">on my post on the meaning of low-inflation in the risk adverse free market</a> we briefly covered the fact that central bank rates are a guideline for private banks and that when banks don't pass on the full savings it is essentially automatic profit.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.3152975/mortgage-broker-says-banks-aren-t-giving-canadians-the-interest-savings-they-deserve-1.3153754">Mortgage broker says banks aren't giving Canadians the interest savings they deserve</a><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>"It's tough to argue that it's anything but [a money grab]," Ross tells As It Happens guest host Laura Lynch. "This does go directly to their profit margin. Being completely fair, the banks in Canada are not short of profit."&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">When the Bank of Canada last cut interest rates in January, it was by 0.25 per cent. The banks followed by cutting only 15 basis points. This week, the trend <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bank-of-canada-rate-cut-unlikely-to-lower-mortgage-loan-rates-much-1.3152697">continues</a>.<b>Before the 2008 financial crisis, the banks usually matched cuts in interest rates by the Bank of Canada. Since then, it's been less predictable.</b>&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><b><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"There are some people who are saying they are building future loss provisions because, obviously, there is a lot of consumer debt in the economy," Ross says.</span>&nbsp;</b></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">He doesn't buy that argument.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>"There has not been an increase in defaults in Canada, so, while there is a lot of consumer debt that's in the market place, Canadian consumers are wealthier now than they ever have been," Ross says. "And with rising real estate values, the big banks have a lot of collateral."&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">He says that the rate cuts that banks have not passed on to consumers are beginning to add up.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"It's significant math. In the last few years, they've built in . . . more than one per cent and so for a $400,000 mortgage, you're talking about $4,000 a year."</span></blockquote>I'm certainly not one to defend the banks but in this case I'd have to say Mr. Ross is wrong. The idea that the banks need more profit is silly as the most profit comes when people can service their loans. Saying the banks are simply engaging in a money grab is over-simplifying the situation when in reality with interest rates supposed to be a gauge for risk and the BoC attempting to artificially lower risk the banks are having to take risk calculations into their own hands with the added bonus of padding their margins. Of course the banks are probably aware this surplus is temporary as now the real situation is becoming clear:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/alberta-insolvency-rates-rise-as-oilsands-slump-1.3159894">Alberta insolvency rates rise as oilsands slump</a><div><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/alberta-ei-rolls-swell-10-in-may-1.3164672">Alberta EI rolls swell 10% in May</a></div><div><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/vacancy-rates-increasing-rents-dropping-for-edmonton-tenants-1.3170352">Vacancy rates increasing, rents dropping, for Edmonton tenants</a><div><br /></div><div>This last link is interesting as really Fort McMurray should have made the headline as&nbsp;"Apartments are going for $500 a month less than they did a year ago.". Yes, that's right $500 decrease YoY, for rent. But 'what bubble' right?</div><div><br />So clearly Alberta, Canada's "job creation engine" isn't doing so well, and on the other hand the BoC is "puzzled" why their monetary policy hasn't had the effects on exports they have been expecting. Hmm, is it any wonder why consumer banks may be unsure about taking on unwarranted risk with even more loans?</div></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Conclusion</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>This last interest rate cut will have a negligible effect just as the one in January did. These cuts come in the face of a global deflationary headwind which even a drop to 0% rates tomorrow would not counter. <a href="http://business.financialpost.com/investing/will-the-bank-of-canada-have-to-start-looking-at-qe-soon">The BoC is effectively out of maneuvering room which is why talk of a "Canadian QE" has surfaced</a>:</div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">“The rapidly emerging debate addresses the question of whether the Bank of Canada stands willing to step into the realm of unconventional policies, in case the evolution continues to stubbornly track the downside scenario and not the baseline,” said Jimmy Jean, senior economist at Desjardins Capital Markets.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Recent economic indicators show a Canadian economy that continues to struggle in the wake of a collapse in oil prices that began last year. Statistics Canada said Monday that wholesale sales for the month of May declined one per cent, compared with economist expectations that sales would be flat. That follows a disappointing manufacturing read last week, which showed that factory sales edged up only 0.1 per cent in May, compared with expectations of a 0.4 per cent rise.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Unconventional monetary policy has been deployed by the world’s major central banks to jump start their economies in the past few years, including quantitative easing programs by the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the U.S. Federal Reserve — the latter of which deployed three separate QE programs, buying trillions of dollars worth of U.S. Treasuries to push down long-term yields.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>But while quantitative easing is the first thing that comes to mind when discussing unconventional policy, there are a variety of monetary tools the BoC can deploy if it is forced to use its last remaining lifeline and cut its rate to zero.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>For instance, the bank could bring back forward guidance, which was introduced by former governor Mark Carney in 2009 and soon after adopted by other banks worldwide. Forward guidance involves communicating clearly to markets the conditions the bank sees as necessary for future rate hikes, and even potentially hinting at the timing of such hikes.</b> Poloz decided to end explicit guidance in 2014 when he took over from his predecessor, saying it should be reserved for use in a “zero lower bound” environment.</span></blockquote>Actually what forward guidance really is, is a lie. Forward guidance is a bank *saying* they're going to raise/lower rates hoping that the words and expectation itself is enough to move or contain markets. It's what the Federal Reserve is engaging in now with their warnings of rate hikes yet each and every time they have an opportunity to do it, they don't. Saying "forward guidance" is a tool of policy makers is akin to saying that "the boy who cried wolf" mobilized people effectively. <b>Until the real crisis came, that is.</b>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/07/puzzled-boc-cuts-rates-admits-rate-cut.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8182334793544213982.post-6404547010679412141Sun, 05 Jul 2015 17:23:00 +00002015-07-06T16:54:23.471-06:00UPDATE-1: Now is the time to observe, learn, and actI've always said Greece is the canary in the coal mine of the collapse of industrialized economies in the face of limits to growth. There is much to be learned from the events occurring there now in many regards, from the likely behavior of "creditors" when push comes to shove, the power governments have in the face of such creditors, the reactions of people both prepared and unprepared, the methods of survival, the development of community, the formation of gangs, and much more.<br /><br /><b>Learning about the true nature of freedom and democracy</b><br /><br />The naked brutality of a financial dictatorship should be visible for all to see which is especially ironic following the Ukraine situation in which it was "European Democracy" the Ukrainians were supposedly in desire of running from Russian "totalitarianism". There is no true democracy, not in Europe, not in the U.S., and not in Canada, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11718296/EU-warns-of-Armageddon-if-Greek-voters-reject-terms.html">we're all slaves to infinite growth and international finance ponzi-conomies where at the end of the day the only thing that matters is repaying the debt chain all the way back to the primary bond holders at the top, the true "leaders" of social direction and policy.</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said the <b>EU authorities may have to prepare emergency loans to keep basic public services functioning and to prevent the debt-stricken country spinning out of control next week.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>"Without new money, salaries won't be paid, the health system will stop functioning, the power network and public transport will break down, and they won't be able to import vital goods because nobody can pay," he said.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Mr Schulz earlier called for the elected Syriza government to be replaced by "technocrat" rule until stability is restored.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The alarmist warnings are part of an escalating pressure campaign by European leaders as Greeks decide their destiny in what has become – despite attempts by Syriza to present it otherwise - an in-out vote on euro membership after five years of economic depression and mass unemployment.</span></blockquote><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/04/business/mindful-of-greece-ukraine-is-in-a-rush-to-line-up-debt-relief.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&amp;smid=nytcore-iphone-share&amp;_r=0" target="_blank">I hope the western Ukrainians are paying attention</a> because <a href="http://rt.com/op-edge/268831-ukraine-greece-imf-debt-austerity/">while "the institutions" may be perfectly happy to loan Ukraine "money"</a>&nbsp;without the same sorts of conditions a "democratic member" like Greece has to conform to to secure an important NATO position on Russia's doorstep there certainly isn't any "democracy and freedom" waiting for them in Europe with the sorts of debts they're racking up.<br /><br />While many in the media make a point to describe SYRIZIA as "extreme left" as though that somehow explains their actions defying the ECB what Greece truly exposes is at the core of it all it's not left vs right. All IMF aligned countries have forfeited the public creation of their currencies, either to private lenders or the ECB (which is also basically private lenders). It's creditor vs. citizen and any government right or left truly working on behalf of the Greek people would have no choice other than to do what SYRIZIA is trying to do. As opposed to say the last Greek government which blocked their government buildings and banks off with riot police and beat the people <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-30/there-one-small-problem-greek-crowdfunded-bailout-campaign" target="_blank">as they worked in league with the creditors to bury the Greeks in multiple generations of debt </a>and keep their place in the status-quo.<br /><br /><b>Learning about the true nature of "anti-terror"</b><br /><br />Yanis Varoufakis is perfectly correct to label what the EU and IMF mafia of bankers is doing to Greece as terrorism.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"What they're doing with Greece has a name: terrorism. Why have they forced us to close the banks? To frighten people. It's about spreading terror," he told El Mundo.</span></blockquote>You are now seeing the true world terrorists at work. The people behind the coup in Ukraine, the people behind arming the CIA asset al-Qaeda to overthrow governments and provide the excuse of ISIS needed both to bomb Syria and enact further "anti-terror" laws like C51. <a href="http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/05/29/one-dead-two-arrested-in-greek-anti-terrorism-operation/">In fact Greece provides an example of what the anti-terror laws are for too.</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>The <a href="http://greece.greekreporter.com/tag/counter-terrorism-unit/">Greek police counter-terrorism unit</a> located and arrested two of the three people said to be involved in a bank robbery</b> in Distomo last August, during a special operation held on Friday afternoon in Nea Anchialos, Volos, Central Greece.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Georgios Petrakakos, Spyridon Christodoulou and Spyridon Dravillas are the three men identified as the bank robbers.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Christodoulou and Petrakakos did not resist arrest after police invaded their hideout while Dravillas refused to surrender and committed suicide with an AK-47 assault rifle.</span>&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>The Distomo bank robbery suspects have allegedly cooperated with infamous terrorist <a href="http://greece.greekreporter.com/?s=Nikos+Maziotis">Nikos Maziotis</a> and runaway convict <a href="http://greece.greekreporter.com/?s=Vassilis+Paleokostas">Vassilis Paleokostas</a>.</b> Dravillas was specifically the one who helped <a href="http://hollywood.greekreporter.com/2014/09/25/exclusive-hollywood-calls-for-paleokostas/">Paleokostas escape from Korydallos prison Hollywood-style by helicopter</a>.</span></blockquote>Yes, bank robberies are now terrorism, too. Do you see how more and more "criminal acts" and "terrorist acts" are becoming one and the same? And what makes them terrorists? Well they "allegedly cooperated" with some high profile terrorist. There's no way to know for sure as really anti-terror units could just say that, couldn't they? It's not like they have to prove it as it'll now be "proved" in the secret anti-terror tribunal where circumstantial bullshit evidence is just fine.<br /><br />Yes for now the state is not going to abuse it's power and arrest masses of people arbitrarily. For now. Those thinking that because the Canadian government for instance hasn't started going out and rounding up activists because C51 is now law don't understand how governments slowly acclimate you to tolerate more and more abuse gradually. The first step is to make criminal activity terrorist activity, because nobody likes criminals and thus most people are ok if they're treated like shit and not given due process. They'll start with severe criminals and slowly but surely make more and more mundane criminal acts terrorism too.<br /><br />Once the transformation of criminals to terrorists is complete the government will be in the clear to abuse anti-terror powers as all "criminal" proceedings will now follow the anti-terror form of due process instead. Secret trials, planted evidence, entrapment, the works. You're never going to see "innocents" arrested as terrorists on TV, you can be sure utilizing the "disruption" abilities in C51 and other anti-terror laws they will now be able to make anyone look like anything. Those looking for the government to obviously display it's abuse simply don't get how these things work and are ignoring history and even when the government does display it's abuse such as with the G20 all they require is some excuse (like a riot that lasted for an hour and a half which 10,000 police didn't try to stop), and a few low level patsies to throw under the bus and they're in the clear. <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/toronto-police-chief-blair-wants-to-run-for-federal-liberals/article24128343/">Hell you might even end up as an MP</a>.<br /><br /><b>Learning the true nature of the importance of preparation</b><br /><b><br /></b>Long lines at ATMs have almost become the symbol of Greece at the moment, it's the favorite image being used by media to scare the people. These lines do exist, plenty of Greeks were completely unprepared for this event having been lulled into a false sense of security by the former government. It's important to realize, however, that the Greeks not standing in line at the ATM are not being shown in the media. Plenty of Greeks were prepared for this event, plenty of Greeks have been growing their own food and haven't had money in the bank for quite some time.<br /><br />When the events of Greece eventually arrive at other countries you do not want to be the one standing in line at the ATM. You might think I sound alarmist in the idea this could happen in the U.S. or in Canada, my response would be: that's probably what those standing in the ATM lines said too.<br /><br />Greece also demonstrates the important of owning gold or silver as <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11716318/Greeces-Yanis-Varoufakis-prepares-for-economic-siege-as-companies-issue-private-currencies.html">already alternative currencies are emerging from private companies to pay their workers</a> and are in turn arranging private agreements with grocery stores and shops to accept the currency they're issuing. Aside from Euro's which are getting scarcer by the day the only other universal currency you could possibly trade for one of these private currencies a grocery store might accept would be gold and silver, or bitcoin, <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2014/01/forward-thinking-dollar-gold-silver-and.html" target="_blank">though in the longer term bitcoin might be a bit riskier to hold on to</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/francescoppola/2015/07/03/the-road-to-grexit/">There isn't going to be some sort of "Grexit" event, the Grexit is a process and it's already begun, as Frances Coppola writes in an excellent piece on the subject.</a><br /><br />In some ways the Greeks have been far luckier than the nations that will subsequently be sucked into this vacuum of debt the system has created. The world financial system has spent significant resources trying to prop Greece up as it's really the linchpin in an entire domino effect of sovereign debt that will have far reaching consequences for the status-quo economies all around the world. It has been during the slow destruction of Greece that low interest rate policies could actually go "lower" and where central banks were still getting some sort of growth "return" for their "investment" of your future labour. These resources and financial "tools" will not exist for subsequent nations and as such the collapse of ponzi-conomies will be a lot swifter.<br /><br /><b>Learning about the long term risks of re-localization</b><br /><b><br /></b>While the local economy in Greece re-asserts itself <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11716318/Greeces-Yanis-Varoufakis-prepares-for-economic-siege-as-companies-issue-private-currencies.html">there are certainly long term risks to losing immediate access to the global trade market</a> (so long as it remains stable, that is).<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">"<b>Luckily we have six months stocks of oil and four months stocks of pharmaceuticals,</b>" he told The Telegraph.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Mr Varoufakis said a special five-man committee from the Greek treasury, the Bank of Greece, the trade unions and the private banks is working feverishly in a "war room" near his office allocating precious reserves for top priorities.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Food has been exempted from an import freeze since capital controls were introduced last weekend. Grains, meats, dairy products, and other foodstuffs should be able to enter the country freely, averting a potential disaster as the full tourist season kicks off.</span></blockquote>It is here where the importance of peak oil begins to emerge, which also serves as a good basis for understanding the order in which industrial ponzi-conomies will collapse.<br /><br />As I <a href="http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/01/sorry-folks-recovery-has-been-delayed.html" target="_blank">pointed out in a post earlier this year on the Bank of Canada interest rate cut</a> (yes we'll be getting to the predictions of recession in Canada shortly) the price of oil - despite the system's rhetoric to the contrary - being "cheap" isn't really cheap at all barring the relatively new phenomenon of extremely expensive prices over the last 10 years. Here is that chart again for your convenience:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xF2t5Ot_lCs/VMANpK7uI5I/AAAAAAAACAY/i-iZoFZ1I5k/s1600/RWTCd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="162" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xF2t5Ot_lCs/VMANpK7uI5I/AAAAAAAACAY/i-iZoFZ1I5k/s400/RWTCd.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />For a modern economy to operate it needs oil. It is the very foundation of everything we have here today but with the advent of peak <u><b>conventional</b></u> oil (which is what peak oil was always about before you say "but fracking" or "but oilsands") the dynamics of energy have changed. It now costs more to consume, it costs more to produce, and there are fewer and fewer conventional oil producers and more and more unconventional oil producers. That is the very essence of the problem with peak oil, the problem was never oil depletion but rather that as cheap conventional oil depletes we have to more and more turn to unconventional oil to supplement demand and this unconventional oil is more expensive to consume (which has the effect of raising the price of all oil as in supply and demand terms it is all weighed equally).<br /><br />This increase in the price of energy represents a huge additional cost for countries which can not produce it and Greece is a prime example. At the end of the day if Greece wants oil they're going to have to buy it and unless they can produce something greater in value that can also account for all of their other required imports they are looking at either a permanent deficit, or a significant reduction in their standard of living. But it's not only Greece.<br /><br />Countries in this situation have one tool to counter this global trade imbalance, tourism. Through tourism Greece can operate an enlarged service sector as relying on tourism essentially translates to relying on the production and trade of other nations to supplement globally acceptable currency reserves - up until recently this was largely the U.S. dollar, or the Euro. Pretty well any "tourist destination" would accept U.S. dollars and most still do and thus by tourists coming and spending U.S. dollars the economies were constantly being injected by new liquidity that could be used in global trade.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/article25234465.ece/BINARY/w620/rb-comment-edcartoon-03rb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/article25234465.ece/BINARY/w620/rb-comment-edcartoon-03rb.jpg" height="277" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/the-report-on-business-cartoon/article25118934/?utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_medium=Referrer:+Social+Network+/+Media&amp;utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links" target="_blank">source</a></td></tr></tbody></table>Tourism in the face of a world economy which on the whole is having issues is not going to sustain the needs of the nation as the capacity for consumers of other producing nations to engage in tourism decreases.<br /><br />The capacity for tourism will decrease because of the positive feedback loop that is in play. Let's for a minute jump to Canada's situation which is essentially the polar opposite of Greece's. Greece is having a major debt issue and problems sustaining their economy, while Canada on the other hand is having issues kick starting it's economy due to the export market. Of course to export, you're going to need to need someone to import. Simplifying the situation for visualization purposes if Canada has oil (which it does, very expensive oil to produce I might add) and Greece needs oil then Greece has to purchase it adding to the deficit.<br /><br />The entire reason oil became the foundation of our society is it's the most condensed portable form of energy we have available. The huge return on investment of conventional oil also meant it was the cheapest to extract. But with the new era of pricing for oil as well as the volatility what was once a workable trade arrangement is having significant problems today both for indebted importers and exporters relying more and more heavily on unconventional oil production which if the global economy is going to "grow" will require more and more of the oil supply to come from unconventional sources to meet demand.<br /><br />The primary risks of re-localization for countries like Greece means unstable access to oil supplies and other needs. Just because it's a risk however doesn't mean it's a "bad event". As one Greek proudly proclaims:<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Due to capital controls Greeks will be forced to use just local produce such as olive oil, fresh fruit &amp; vegetables. The horror, the horror!</div>— Teacher Dude (@teacherdude) <a href="https://twitter.com/teacherdude/status/617371832849727488">July 4, 2015</a></blockquote>What it means is an adjustment of expectations. It's not easy, but it is freeing in the right frame of mind.<br /><br /><b>The next "global recession"</b><br /><b><br /></b>In February I wrote a post with a part on the 'great deflation' that had just begun (and which I have been mentioning in the years before). This great deflation is now in full swing which the report that Canada is likely entering a new recession, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-s-economy-isn-t-in-recession-despite-report-joe-oliver-says-1.3137159" target="_blank">despite Joe Olivers claims to the contrary</a>,&nbsp;likely confirms.<br /><br />Of course in reality we're not re-entering recession as we never truly left the last one. The growth has been an illusion fueled by central bank currency printing the world over but the desired escape velocity where there is enough momentum and expectations of growth to turnover the credit system and drive new loans hasn't happened. The recession is becoming visible now because with 90% of the industrial world at 0 or near zero percent interest rates there is nowhere left to go.<br /><br />The magic trick is largely over and now the world will be left to reap the consequences as the bond bubble we've been creating for the best 7 years unravels and all of the old junk debt we thought we swept under the carpet comes back to say hello. It wasn't long ago that "Greece was saved", and in that same fashion old friends like the 'fiscal cliff' will be making cameo appearances in the next act.<br /><br />If the last major recession swept the legs out from under debt ridden consumer countries then it is this coming recession where countries have already deployed most of their recession fighting tools that will sweep the legs out from under the major producers. It's very likely this recession will be the biggest and last as well as the final blow to the current U.S. denominated global monetary system. It's perhaps ironically coincidental that the week Greek banks closed, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/china-launches-infrastructure-bank-first-step-in-an-epic-journey/2015/06/29/e7d8bd7a-ca11-46fa-9bad-15ba856f958c_story.html" target="_blank">the new Chinese lead AIIB opened</a>.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">BEIJING — Underscoring its growing global heft, China launched an infrastructure bank for Asia on Monday,<b> receiving the backing of 50 countries for an initiative that seeks to boost the region’s economy but also put Beijing at the center of its development.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Representatives from <b>Britain, Germany, South Korea and Australia</b> were among those who took part in a ceremony to sign the <a href="http://www.mof.gov.cn/zhengwuxinxi/caizhengxinwen/201506/P020150629360882722541.pdf">articles of association</a> in the Great Hall of the People, <b>with the United States and Japan the most notable absentees.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Many U.S. allies joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on Monday — despite Washington’s initial objections — in what was seen as a major diplomatic victory for President Xi Jinping.</b></span></blockquote><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-02/china-state-official-hints-beijing-may-bailout-greece" target="_blank">Which may ultimately bail Greece out...</a><br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br /><b><br /></b>Greece should be watched very closely, and as you're watching ask yourself "what would I do in that situation?". Ask yourself: "are you prepared if the ATMs one day close?". Put your thoughts into action and prepare. It really does no harm to prepare for an emergency even if you don't expect or want it to happen, It's an extension to your fire extinguisher or first aid kit.<br /><br />I know, it seems silly when surrounded by the illusion of security and stability our society represents but the just-in-time ponzi-conomy is a lot more fickle, and fragile, than most probably believe and life support is quickly running out. Don't get stuck in the lines.<br /><br /><a href="http://rt.com/op-edge/271819-greece-austerity-referedum-bailout/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=RSS&amp;utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">‘EU leaders see Syriza as threat to neo-liberal Europe’</a><br /><div><br /></div><div align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Eo8Oj75l6E0" width="560"></iframe></div><br /><b>Update-1</b><br /><b><br /></b>Following his resignation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2012/01/europes-greek-moment/" target="_blank">Yanis Varoufakis wrote an article in 2012</a> on the true state of the Eurozone which touches on much that I have here.<br /><br />Some choice exerts:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Grasping how this GSRM worked and why it perished is a prerequisite for coming to terms with our current global predicament — which, in turn, is key to understanding why Greece has become so prominent in the headlines.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Sustainable growth in a capitalist economy is a rare blessing that is predicated on the successful recycling of surpluses</b>. <b>Every nation, every trading bloc, every continent, indeed the global economy itself, is made up of deficit and surplus regions.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">California, Greater London, New South Wales, and Germany will always be in surplus vis-à-vis Arizona, the North of England, Tasmania, and Portugal, respectively. Given this chronic chasm, which market forces can never obliterate, the deficit regions are unable to maintain demand for the goods and services of the surplus producers. Thus, without surplus recycling, stagnation beckons for surplus and deficit regions alike.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Surplus recycling is commonplace at the national level. In the United States, for example, military procurement often comes with the precondition that new production facilities are built in depressed states; the Australian welfare state ensures that Western Australian and New South Welsh surpluses end up propping up demand for their goods and services in Tasmania. <b>However, at the global level the issue of surplus recycling becomes more pressing and harder to institute.</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">The postwar era was remarkable in that two GSRMs saw to it that the world economy achieved unprecedented growth. The first GSRM lasted from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. The United States exited the war with enormous surpluses, which it quickly sought to recycle to the rest of the Western world in a multitude of ways (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan">the Marshall Plan</a>, wide-ranging support for Japanese industry, endless backing of the European integration project, and so on), effectively functioning as a GSRM itself.&nbsp;</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>Alas, this first postwar GSRM broke down, predictably, when US surpluses turned into deficits toward the end of the 1960s. The loss of that meticulously planned GSRM threw the world into the 1970s crises which did not subside until a new — most peculiar — GSRM was put in place, again courtesy of the United States.&nbsp;</b></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>This time the nation absorbed the surpluses of the rest of the world, running ever increasing trade and government deficits. Those deficits were, in turn, financed by capital flowing into Wall Street, as the rest of the world recycled its profits by investing them in the United States.</b></span></blockquote>&nbsp;...<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;">Since then, the best paid plans of Central Banks, G20 nations, or the IMF have failed to restore the rude energy of the wounded beast. <b>Without a functioning GSRM, the crisis that started in 2008 will continue to migrate across continents and sectors, regularly threatening us with imminent collapse.</b></span></blockquote>&nbsp;...<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-small;"><b>One ought also to fear that such a move will only manage to achieve an uncontrolled disintegration whose end result will be massive recession in the European north, a gargantuan stagflation in the European periphery, and the descent of the global economy into a postmodern 1930s. Europe has managed twice in the last hundred years to drag the rest of the world down with it. It is about to do it again, with Greece as a convenient scapegoat.</b></span></blockquote>http://www.canadiantrendsblog.ca/2015/07/now-is-time-to-observe-learn-and-act.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Richard)1